Getsumei Moonlight
by vargs
Summary: Post SS arc. Hitsugaya is sent with his group to Soul Society to fight against the arrancar. But they meet a shinigami girl along the way. Who is she and why is she unwilling to fight for Soul Society? No particular pairing YET! PERMANENT HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This takes place after the soul society arc and it's when hitsugaya and his little group are sent to soul society to help out ichigo and co. Yup. This is almost like my first fanfiction, so please, live with it. Flames are fine, in fact, anything's fine, just review like u mean it. I'll try and reply all the reviews at the ends of updated chapters. Also, if you have time, check out my favorites lists. They have some pretty good stories and authors on them. Also, the way I write is formatted like me talking about an anime episode scene for scene, because in my daydream, I think of everything as if it were an anime episode, so I apologize beforehand if u guys don't like it. Also, I tend to use Japanese words when I desperately feel like it, so too bad.

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The wind whistled through the still night. A lone figure wanders into the light of a street lamp. Suddenly, it looks up. Then quickly, it dashes out of the light and into the shadows again.

* * *

\The school bell rang. Ichigo leaned back in his chair and stretched.

"Geez! The fact that _they're_ here is making life hard. Now I have double-duty! I have to watch out for the arrancar and I have to deal with them."

Rukia walked up behind him.

"You'll get used to it. This is our job."

"Yeah, well it's getting on my nerves."

The answer he got was a kick to the head from Rukia.

Just then, Inoue and Chad walked up.

"Hey, Kurosaki-kun! Are we meeting again tonight at my place?"

Ichigo looked up briefly from rubbing his head.   
"Huh? Maybe, I'm not sure."

He got another kick from Rukia.

"Of course we are, but you don't really need to come. It's mostly shinigami anyway. We just need to make sure you guys don't get killed."

"Oh, daijoubu! We're perfectly fine meeting up with you at night!

"Meet WHO at night!" and Ichigo's friend Keigo Asano flew into their midst. Ichigo stuck his fist out and Keigo ran into him. He now lay on the floor, crying anime-style.

"That was mean, Ichigo! I just didn't want to be left out!"

"Well, you don't have to be that intense," replied Ichigo. Keigo had recovered by then. He now launched himself at Ichigo.

"Those guys who suddenly appeared yesterday, did you know they forced me to take them in? I mean the bald guy and his friend. They're living in my house and forcing me to care for them. It's TERRIBLE!"

Ichigo yelled, "What? They're living with you! When did that happen!" But at that moment, Rukia decided that it was time to go home and she took hold of Ichigo's arm and, smiling charmingly while apologizing to Keigo, she dragged Ichigo away, saying that they had to go now. Inoue waved and said,

"See you later then! I need to go check on Rangiku-chan and Toushirou-kun!"

Chad lifted a hand in farewell and went off on his own.

* * *

The whole gang was now assembled in Inoue's apartment. It consisted of Hitsugaya, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Matsumoto, Ichigo, Chad and Inoue. Ishida had been missing school for a few days, which was very unusual, but no one could seem to find him anywhere. But, as he was skilled in the Quincy arts, he would have no trouble defending himself. There was also the fact that he hated shinigami, and that would be problem if he were to be in the gang right now.

"So, let us discuss our current position," began Hitsugaya, "So far, no arrancar have appeared in Karakura City. But we can estimate that they will appear soon. Like I said before, Aizen has his eye on Kurosaki." (A/N: There is a reason I'm addressing everyone by their last names. Some people only address certain people by their last names and some people only address certain people by their first names. For example, Ichigo calls Hitsugaya, Toushirou, to his great annoyance, which is his first name. He calls Matsumoto, Rangiku-san, first name with a title. He calls Chad by just his first name, but he pronounces his name Chad even though it's supposed to be Sado. Yes, you get the point. There are some people I don't know what are called by other people, so to people who care, sumimasen!) "We need to make sure everyone with high spiritual energy is well-guarded. We also have to be ready at all times for a possible attack. Any questions?"

Ichigo raised his hand as if he were in school.

"Yes, Kurosaki?"

"What was the reason I'm being targeted by Aizen right now?"

Everyone sweatdropped. (A/N: You know, the giant sweatdrop that anime people do? Ah forget it. If you don't know, you don't know. But most people should know it.)

Just then, Rukia's phone rang. (A/N: It's her little spirit phone thing that rings to tell her when a hollow is near. I have no idea what they're called. These A/Ns are very frequent. If you don't like it then just tell me in your review.) She picked it up, reading the message on the screen. Everyone looked expectantly at her.

"It's a hollow. Ichigo, it's yours."

"Why is it always me? We've got five other shinigami here who can take it out! Why does it always have to be me?" Ichigo yelled

Rukia replied, "Because you're a substitute shinigami who was put in this area. Now go get it." She pushed the shinigami Ichigo towards the window, bringing him out of his human body with her reitsu-resistant glove. She was about boot him out the window when Hitsugaya spoke up.

"I think we should all go along with him. As he can't control his spirit energy that well, it's like a giant magnet. He'll attract hollows and very possibly the arrancar as well. He'll be an open target. We should all be situated around the area, just in case something happens. The humans will stay here and we'll leave Ikkaku and Yumichika to stay within their area as bodyguards. Matsumoto and I will follow Ichigo. Kuchiki will be coming with us to keep Kurosaki in line. "(A/N: Does he call her Kuchiki? I'm kind of guessing because, since he calls everyone by their last names, he would probably call Rukia by her last name as well. But she might get confused with Byakuya. Oh well. Anyone who knows give me a review.)

Everyone quickly hopped to, except for a little incident from Ichigo about "Kuchiki being the one to keep him in line".

* * *

Ichigo swung his sword around, slicing through a hollow's mask. It disintegrated and disappeared, with an other-worldly scream. Ichigo stood, panting. Rukia clapped.  
"Good job, Ichigo. You killed a hollow. The substitute shinigami is doing his job." Ichigo glared at her. Matsumoto interrupted their argument.

"There's another round of hollows coming. Seriously, you need to learn to control that reitsu of yours. You just let it run loose and it's attracting loads of hollows."

Ichigo bristled.

"Shut up! It's not my fault I have an excess amount of spiritual energy (A/N: No, it's my fault. XD) and it's not my fault the hollows keep coming! And why are you all just standing there while I do all the work?"

Rukia answered the question. "Because you are a substitute shinigami."

"So? You're a real shinigami from Soul Society! You ought to help out!"

"Will you guys cooperate!" yelled Hitsugaya, "We need to supervise you, Kurosaki, until you're done fulfilling the requirements for your job. We were sent here as back-up for the arrancar threat. The job of clearing this area of hollows is still your job, so step to it!" (A/N: Yes, it's another author's note. I like commenting on my writing. I would like to thank the Academy…no, I'm just kidding. Actually, I would like to apologize for any OOC in this entire fanfiction. You must know that writing in character in a fanfiction is extremely hard. It might not seem like it, but it really is. So gomenasai! Bow and ow my shoulder is cramped up. Ow ow ow.) More hollows appeared. Ichigo groaned loudly.

"While you guys are 'supervising', I'm getting worked to death!"

"Are you saying you can't handle the hollows, Ichigo? Are you saying the little guy with the big sword can't take it anymore?" Rukia smirked.

"Shut up!" yelled Ichigo, as he continued slashing at the hollows, "Geez, why do they keep coming? If this keeps up, I'll be working myself to death soon." He slashed through another hollow.

In the shadows, a figure observed the shinigami.

"A back-up team from Soul Society, huh? Thought so. They couldn't let those unmasked hollows go unpunished. Who is that orange-haired shinigami? He has an incredible amount of spiritual powers for so young a shinigami. He doesn't seem very skilled yet at handling his power, but he's fighting hollows already, and they're not all small-fry hollows either. Let's see, there's a lieutenant and a captain here. This mission must be very important for that. Altogether, judging the reitsu I sense, there is a total of six shinigami. That is nowhere near enough to fight those arrancar." The figure pondered silently this new issue. Suddenly, somewhere over Karakura city, the sky opened itself up and 2 silent figures along with a huge mass of glowing white masks behind them, appeared through the opening. One of the two figures, a white-haired arrancar with half his lower face encased in a shining white hollow mask, looked down on Karakura city, his mouth widening into an evil smile.

"I sense shinigami reitsu. Tonight is going to be fun."

The other figure had dark hair with part of a hollow mask fixed on top of his head. He had dark streaks running down his cheeks from his eyes. He turned his eyes towards the other.

"Do not be rash, Grimmjow. Remember our mission. We are to report the happenings and ranks of these recruited shinigami to Aizen-sama (A/N: GAH! IT'S AN AIZEN!) and dispose of them."

"That is a fancy way of saying it's time to kick some shinigami ass!"

In Karakura City, six shinigami, 2 humans and an unknown figure looked up in alarm at the sudden reitsu from above. The dark figure in the shadows whispered, "They're here."

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Yay! I'm done with chapter 1! Ok, read and review if you please. I should go to sleep now. It's like, 6 in the morn and I was up at 3. So see you all and plz review!

Tsuki-chan


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you so much to charcol who was THE only one who FELT like reviewing. glares at all the other people Also, thank you to goddess of wind44 who added this to her favs. Yay! Without further ado, let me begin to type my little heart out. I should do homework, but I was so happy about the review that I just don't feel like it.

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Chapter 2

Hitsugaya immediately started issuing orders. As soon as Yumichika and Ikkaku arrived, Hitsugaya told them to guard spread out a bit and make sure the two masses of reitsu in the sky were kept in check at all times. Everyone spread out.

The figure in the shadows quietly turned and disappeared once again.

"If there is going to be a fight, I would like nothing to do with it. I might as well deal with the hollows while I'm here. Those shinigami are going to have a lot of trouble on their hands if they're dealing with those strong reitsus that just appeared. Now then, time to get back into shape."

The figure walked through the lamplight, illuminating dark hair, black as night before it melted into the shadows once more. The death scream of a hollow was heard as the mysterious figure commenced to kill hollows. (A/N: I know perfectly well that was lame, but I am not exactly a good writer. Seriously, I got a B+ on my essay and everyone else in my group of friends got A's. Okay, well not everyone but most everyone. I'm blabbering again. I shall make it a point to talk less often and write the story more often.)

Ichigo was left in the clearing along with Rukia. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto were positioned on a nearby rooftop, observing the disturbers of peace. Matsumoto suddenly shunpoed over to Ichigo and reported their sightings.

"There are two of them. Both are definitely arrancar. They are both pretty strong. Make sure you don't do anything stupid." She looked pointedly at Ichigo when she said this. A vein bulged visibly in Ichigo's temple as he tried his best to pretend he didn't care. (A/N: poor guy. He isn't mature enough to learn to control his temper. pats Ichigo on head BITE OW!)

After a staring contest between Ichigo and Matsumoto, Hitsugaya decided that he needed his vice-captain. Matsumoto shunpoed back, but not before having the last word.

"Don't do anything stupid, _strawberry_!" Then, she disappeared into a shunpo, leaving Ichigo to fume as long and loud as he wished, which was not very long because Rukia was starting to get a headache.

There was a sudden shift in the reitsu above and Ichigo realized that the arrancar were moving.

"Here they come," said Hitsugaya, pulling out Hyourinmaru and keeping him at the ready. The rest of the shinigami did likewise. Tension reigned as the approaching reitsu became steadily stronger. Suddenly, their speed increased and there was an enormous explosion in the clearing as the two arrancar made contact with the earth. Ichigo shielded his eyes from the flying debris and peered through the clearing dust. Then he caught his first glimpse of the two arrancar. (A/N: Yes I know. That last sentence was strange. But that might just be you.)

"Who are you?!" cried Ichigo. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto had, by then, arrived beside them in the clearing.

"That is unnecessary information," said the one with black streaks, "You only need to know that we are here on a mission and we have come to investigate your recruits. Aizen-sama thinks that the information will be very handy. It will give us a chance to estimate the current power of Seireitei and it will also give us a change to observe other things." His dark eyes rested on Ichigo as he said these words. Ichigo suddenly remembered what Hitsugaya had told him, '_Aizen has his eye on you…'_.

Ichigo gripped his zanpakutou tighter and shouted, "You have no business here and if you intend on hurting anyone in this city, you will pay for it. I will see to it myself!" (A/N: clap clap clap Yay! Ichigo's memorial speech!) Then, he prepared himself to swing and rushed at the two arrancar, screaming his challenge.

"Kurosaki!!" yelled Hitsugaya, "Damn, that idiot's going to get himself killed!"

Hitsugaya growled in frustration. "Be ready for anything," he told the other shinigami.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!!" (A/N: I know this is a probably annoying people, but I just HAD to comment on this. I actually went and searched this out on the web just to make sure I was spelling it right. And I got distracted by youtube. XD)

A slicing attack of glowing reitsu was shot towards the two arrancar. Ulquiorra kept his position. Ichigo smirked as he thought, '_That arrancar guy isn't going to survive if he's just going to stand there. This will be an easy win after all._ (A/N: I got MAJORLY distracted by youtube. And I am probably going to write very horribly and lamely from now on because I was distracted by youtube. ) But at the last moment, the other arrancar appeared in front of Ichigo's blast and fired a cero, negating Ichigo's getsuga tensho. Ichigo barely had time to exclaim his surprise before Grimmjow was on him. He raised his clawed hand, a cero beginning to form in his palm. Ichigo tried to raise his sword in an attempt to block the cero, but at this close of a range, it was nearly impossible to miss.

Grimmjow laughed. "So much for the shinigami. If all of you guys were this weak, we won't have any problem at all overtaking Seireitei." He grinned as he prepared to release his cero. Rukia screamed.

"ICHIGO!"

There was a blinding flash of light and an explosion. The shinigami all shielded from the blast.

Ichigo gingerly opened an eye. He was still alive, for some miraculous reason. The arrancar in front of him was clutching his arm, blood dripping to the floor and smoke sizzling up into the air in a sickening way. (A/N: How would you react if you were about to get blasted to bits and then you find your attacker dripping a LOT of blood from his arm and it's sizzling? I would freak out and faint from the stress. Not really but that's ok. ) Ichigo looked on with amazement. How in the world did he manage to make it out alive? He looked around the clearing. The other shinigami who were present looked about as shocked as he did. Who had saved him?

Grimmjow growled and looked towards Ichigo, who was sprawled on the floor.

"You bastard! What did you do!?" Pissed off was an understatement. More like, I am going to go over there and tear you apart limb from limb. Ichigo scrambled to his feet, but he needn't have moved.

"Bakudou 61, Rukujyoukourou."

Six beams of light pierced Grimmjow's body, sealing his movement. Ulquiorra stayed where he was, knowing that if he made any move to help, he would be sealed as well. Grimmjow roared in frustration. A figure stepped from the shadows.

"I didn't do anything. I merely fired a blast at you to stop you from killing the kid and giving me problems. Then, as you didn't seem to want to surrender, I had no choice but to restrain you."

No one replied. They were all too busy taking in the newcomer's appearance, which was slightly more than a surprise. It was a female, or more accurately, a girl of about thirteen or fourteen with long dark hair, dark as night, running down in a low pony-tail to the mid-back. She wasn't exactly tall; in fact, she was shorter than everyone present. (A/N: Yes, even Hitsugaya. Do you have a problem with the fact that I feel like being shorter than him? glare No I'm just kidding. Actually, in real life, I'm taller than him, but that's okay. Nobody cares except me. ) She was wearing a black T-shirt and loose brown pants. She had her hands confidently at her sides. All in all, a kid with the look of a dangerous shinigami. (A/N: Lame-o -.-;;) Silver eyes stared through the curtain of black, challenging anyone to question her. And the people were stupid enough to do just that. After staring for at least ten seconds first.

"What's a kid doing here!? Why can she see us and why can she overcome this arrancar with only a few words?!" cried Ichigo, earning him a well-deserved, cold glare from the girl.

"Firstly, I am not a kid. I am actually older than you are."

Ichigo groaned inwardly, not wanting another glare. For some reason, it scared him almost as much as Rukia in a temper scared him. But still, having to deal with another smart-alecky kid was not at the top of his list. Having to deal with the fact that Hitsugaya was higher in rank and looked younger was already enough for him. "

Secondly, this is where I live and therefore I have every right to wander around wherever I feel like it. About why I can see you, can it possibly be because I have spiritual powers? I mean, I did just fire a blast at the arrancar over there and I did just restrain him. And about why I could defeat him and you couldn't, well I actually observed and planned before I made a move, unlike you."

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched and his face threatened to explode into a temper at any moment. He hated kid-geniuses.

Grimmjow was now struggling to escape from his bounds. Ulquiorra glanced his way, emotionless as always. The girl turned her attention to Grimmjow.

"That is not going to work. I practice a lot in my free time, so I am completely confident that this restraint will keep up, no matter how strong your reitsu."

It turned out, she was completely right. Grimmjow growled at her. (A/N: Reminds you of an angry beast doesn't he?)

"Don't mess with the Espada, bastard. You'll pay for it with your life!"  
"How interesting," replied the girl, "A death threat after only meeting me for a minute."

Hitsugaya decided to speak up at this time.

"Who are you and why are you helping us?"

The girl turned to look at him and something dawned in her eyes. But the expression quickly cleared away to be replaced the customary stare that seemed to see through everyone.

"Who I am does not matter and I wish to remain anonymous. I am merely a passersby who happened to pass by here and intervene in the ruining of a beautiful little clearing. Nothing more. As for why I am helping, it was because I do not especially like to see shinigami getting themselves killed and battered and making a beautiful little clearing ugly and battered in the process. And it was more instinct."

Ichigo was genuinely trying to keep his temper in check now.

Hitsugaya continued on.

"I see. Well, if you are willing to stay here and keep that restraining spell going, we would like to negotiate with these arrancar. By the way, how did you know they were arrancar?"

"You're "whispered conferences" are so soft that you could hear them from all the way on the other side of the city."

Hitsugaya ignored the sarcasm and took her answer for a yes. He walked up to Grimmjow and addressed him.

"Why are you here and what were you sent to do? What is Aizen planning?"

Grimmjow smirked.

"Like I'd tell you. You get your little head away or I just might crush you."

"How many times do I have to tell you? You can't get away. In fact, I doubt you can move now. Your talking is giving me a headache." Cried the black-haired girl.

It was then that Ulquiorra made his move. Quickly directing a swift cero at the newcomer, he ran toward Grimmjow. As he had guessed, the girl lost slight control over her restraint spell while dodging the cero, but that falter was enough. Ulquiorra broke the restraint and dragged Grimmjow into the portal leading to Hueco Mundo. Hitsugaya raised his sword but it was too late, the arrancar were gone.

Matsumoto walked up to where the portal was a few minutes ago. She sighed

"Well, they're gone now. Nobody got any serious injuries. That's good at least, thanks to Nameless-chan over there."

"I do have a name, I just don't feel like telling you. Well, see you."

She turned to walk away. Ichigo spoke up for the first time in a long while.

"Hey kid. Thanks for helping us. You saved us a lot of injuries today."

She stopped, half of her already in shadow. Not bothering to look back, she replied.

"I said before, it was instinct, not because I wanted to help. And they still got away so my helping didn't help a lot. Also, if you would please keep our encounter quiet from the officials in Soul Society, that would help a lot. Even though there's a captain and 2 vice-captains present, I still wish that this was kept to a minimum amount of people only."

"Why is that?" asked Rukia.

"Let's just say I'm not exactly fond of Seireitei. Next time, don't rush straight into a fight without analyzing the enemy first." Then she disappeared once again into the shadows. The shinigami stared after her.

"I wonder if she's on our side," said Matsumoto.

'_And so we meet again, Hitsugaya Toushirou. No, it's now Hitsugaya-Taishou. You've changed a lot since our last meeting. But then again, so have I_,' The dark-haired girl smiled to herself in the shadows. Things were starting to get interesting. It had been boring killing only hollows. Now, she could fight the arrancar and play keep-away from the shinigami.

Aizen watched the screen with interest, one hand supporting his head. (A/N: GAH! IT'S AN AIZEN!!! I'm typing this at 2:03 in the morning. I got majorly distracted by youtube. It's not my fault, it's kurotsuchi's fault!) Very unusual for a young girl to use such a high level of demon magic and overcome an Espada in one try. She also successfully managed to restrain him almost fully. If Ulquiorra hadn't distracted her, Grimmjow would probably be in Soul Society under severe interrogation. He watched the girl talk for a while before rewinding and going back to the first blast. She had used Hadou number 63, Raikouhou. (Lighting Tiger Canon) It was a very advanced spell and she must have had a lot of experience with it. Aizen thought, '_She might come in handy in our next mission_.'

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YAY!!!!!!! I FINISHED IT!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!! Okay, people, you HAVE TO review. I spent quite a while on this. Okay I did get distracted by youtube, but I did work very hard on this. So please R&R!! It would cheer me up immensely and it means a lot to me.

Thank you again to charcol for an alert and review! Thank you to goddess of wind44 for a fav!

Responses to Review:

charcol: Wow, no I love your off-topic rantings! They're very cool! I so far only know Hitsugaya's birthday and Hinamori's birthday. And there are 56 days until Hitsugaya's b-day as of now. Yay! Your review gave me the inspiration to write chapter 2. This one is way longer than the other one. Thank you, first reviewer!

R&R PLZ!!!!!!!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, I shall now officially make an effort to put less frequent author's notes. If it's still bothering people then I shall decide whether or not to take them off. Yay! I have a total of 6 reviews now! Thanks to charcol, FireyFlames,Yozora Nozomi, and NotSupposedToBeHere for reviewing. Thank you to Yozora Nozomi and goddess of wind44 for adding this to their favorites. Thanks to charcol and NotSupposedToBeHere for putting this story on their alert list. You guys have no idea how much that meant to me. Thanks! You guys rock! As to all those people who DIDN'T FEEL LIKE REVIEWING, FEEL MY WRATH!! I GOT 235 HITS AND ONLY 6 REVIEWS!! Yes well, I know my writing sucks but you could at least review and tell me what I'm doing wrong and how I might be able to change it! I don't even care if you guys rant about how my Mary Sue is annoying and it's not going to improve my writing. So SERIOUSLY, R&R!!!!

Disclaimer: Why do all the fanfictions I read have disclaimers? What's the point? We all know that you don't own Bleach. So, if I'm not exactly a supporter of disclaimers, why exactly am I putting this on? Well, it's to fill the space and make it look longer. Anyways, yes we all know that I don't own Bleach and that it belongs to Kubo Tite (Taito). The only people I'm officially claiming are my OC character and HITSUGAYA TOUSHIROU. XD No I'm just kidding. But it would be nice if Hitsugaya was really mine. I only claim my OC character and any fill-in characters that I might add in later. Okay, now on to the story. I've ranted enough. This is already filling quite a bit of the page. I really should do my homework or else I'm going to end up rushing it. Also, to people who think this is going to turn out as a Hitsu/OC fanfiction, then you're wrong. I'm still not certain about the pairings. Sure, I think Hitsugaya is THE most awesome guy in Bleach, and sure, I claim him for myself (sorry, fangirls. XD), but there are just too many stories that end up in the same way. Sure, it is my direst wish to be with Hitsugaya in Soul Society, but I want to make story special. So I most probably will end up writing tens of millions of alternate endings for this. Just a heads up for you guys. R&R if you have any opinions or suggestions and the such.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: AS OF TODAY, THERE ARE 35 DAYS UNTIL HITSUGAYA'S BIRTHDAY! XD YOU MAY NOW PROCEED TO APPLAUD.

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Chapter 3

Ichigo and the entire gang were assembled once more, this time in Urahara Shouten. Renji sighed exasperatedly.

"So, what are we going to do?! Decide already!" he cried.

Everyone turned to glare at him. Renji decided to shut up. But he wasn't the only one looking annoyed and bored. Ichigo and Ikkaku, the next two impatient shinigami were also looking immensely bored. Everyone else tried desperately to think of a plan to propose to the group. Hitsugaya sat against the wall, eyes closed, arms crossed, thinking hard.

'_Those two arrancar were strong for just two. One beat Kurosaki as if it were nothing at all. Imagine what it would be like if a whole army of those arrancar came and attacked Soul Society. It would be disastrous. Even if we did win, which is a pretty small chance, the amount of losses will be overwhelming. Then, there's that girl. I didn't sense any reitsu emanating from her, yet she was strong enough to use an advanced binding spell. Also, the blast she shot before was most likely a highly advanced spell as well. Her concentration was excellent, keeping her restraining spell almost fully invincible. She must be advanced enough too be able to hide her reitsu completely. Usually, no one but captain level or vice-captain level would be able to manage that for an extended period of time. How did she know shinigami demon magic? She definitely didn't look like a shinigami. But it could always be a gigai.'_

Hitsugaya sighed and opened his eyes halfway to see his vice-captain looking quizzically at her. He stared straight back at her with his usual expression and said,

"What is it, Matsumoto?"

Matsumoto continued staring at him with interest.

"That girl? Do you know her?"

Hitsugaya sighed again

"How would I know her? What makes you think I would know her?"

"Well, it seemed that, just for a second, her expression changed when she saw you. I though perhaps she knew you from before?" (A/N: Just saying, this part is seriously lame but I was kind of brain-dead, so please forgive me. I actually PROOFREAD this and when I read this, I was like, WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?! But I didn't feel like changing it, so deal with it and forgive and forget.)

"I don't remember ever having met anyone like her. If I did meet her, I have absolutely no recognition whatsoever."

Matsumoto nodded, but she still looked suspiciously at Hitsugaya every once in a while. Hitsugaya decided to ignore her. Urahara suddenly felt like walking in and greeting his visitors at this time.  
"How's everyone doing?!"

Everyone turned as one to glare at Urahara except Hitsugaya, who had resumed his position against the wall. Urahara froze in the middle of his greeting and sweatdropped.

"Heh heh. Not the best time, eh?"

Urahara slowly turned around, slid open the door and tiptoed out, with everyone's eyes boring into his back.

* * *

(A/N: Don't you love my dividers? I found that the squiggly line didn't work and the actual line didn't work either, so I switched it. Now it should show up. Also, the fact that my OC doesn't have a revealed name yet is starting to bother me. It's so hard to find appositions in substitution of her real name. For people who don't know what I'm talking about, too bad. It's Kurotsuchi's fault you don't have to analyze the Latin language. )

_The door opened to admit a figure with black hair tied back in a ponytail. _(A/N: That's an example of the fact that I'm running out of ways to restate my character without revealing her name. -.-;;) _Closing the door silently behind her, she turned to face the darkness of the broken-down apartment room. A voice came through the still air._

"_Is that you? The girl who saved us?" The cloth that was used to cover the window was lifted and the bright light of the afternoon sun shone through. She let her expression soften slightly before walking forward and kneeling before a poorly-dressed woman with an equally poorly-dressed toddler of about three. He was sleeping soundly. The girl smiled slightly before turning to the woman. She was looking down at her son fondly. Then she turned to meet the unchanging silver eyes._

"_Thank you once again for saving us. It was something terrible that attacked us. If you hadn't come, we would not be here today. Thank you," the woman stood up to bow. The girl put her hands on the woman's shoulders, sitting her back down on the concrete floor. _

"_Don't worry about it. You and your son have the ability to see those monsters, even if it's only vaguely. I'm always in this area so you should be safe. I was just doing my duty as a person when I killed that monster. You don't have to thank me for it. Remember to return home as soon as possible so you won't be caught unawares again." She straightened up to go, but the woman caught her hand. _

"_Don't you have a place to stay? You can stay with us if you want."_

_Silver eyes widened slightly in slight surprise. Then she surprised herself by laughing softly. _

"_No, I don't have a place to stay, but I do try to work wherever I can to earn enough to live. I get enough to somehow get through life.."  
"Don't you have a family?"_

_The question surprised her. Her expression returned to her usual show of no emotion. She looked away, stray strands of dark hair framing her face._

"_No. I don't remember ever having one."_

_A small hand suddenly tugged at her pants leg. She looked down to find that the little boy was awake. He stared up wide-eyed at her._

"_You can stay with us, onee-san! Stay with us!" He tugged slightly on the material. The girl looked down at the little boy and couldn't help but soften up a bit. _

_Kneeling down in front of him, she said, _

"_Alright. But I can't guarantee that I'll be here everyday though. I have to go kill those monsters. But tonight, I'll stay."_

"_You promise?"_

_The girl laughed smiled again. "Yes, I promise."_

_The little boy beamed. _

"_Hai, onee-san!" _(A/N: Onee-san is sister by the way. I felt like putting it in Japanese because it just sounds better that way. How would it look if he said, "Yes, sister!"? It wouldn't sound that adorable and it would make me sound like a nun, which I'm not.)

_The silver-eyed girl watched as the boy ran over to help his mother to her feet. _

'It's almost like a family_,' she thought. _

Silver eyes opened to focus on a gray and rundown apartment room barely large enough for three people. Pale morning sunlight shone through the dirty cloth that served as a curtain for the window. The woman, barely old enough to be considered a mother, was sleeping on the small, dirty mat they'd found yesterday at the garbage dump. Her now four-year-old son was sleeping next to her with a ragged blue blanket draped over him. His stature was so small that the blanket could almost cover his entire figure. The girl sat against the wall, one arm resting on a propped-up leg while her other arm rested on her crossed leg. (A/N: It's hard to describe seated positions. Anyone who has problems picturing this, I can get you a picture. It's like how Inuyasha sits with his sword or like how Kenshin Himura sits.) The little boy whimpered slightly in his sleep and settled back down, the blanket somewhat messed up. The girl stood up and went to cover him up again. He sighed and stuck his thumb into his mouth. She smiled. He still hadn't gotten old enough to get rid of his habit of sucking his thumb.

Through these past six months, she had lived with this small family as a silent new member. They didn't bother giving each other their names. They didn't need to. All they needed to know was that they needed each other and that they were there for the other.

_It could have been like that in Rukongai. But somehow, none of it worked out the way it was supposed to…_

The girl stood there, staring down at the peaceful pair, a slight breeze blowing past the curtain and into the room and playing with her hair. After a while, she left through the door, a silent figure in black, pony-tail flowing behind her like a black wolf's tail. The boy clutched the blue blanket and snuggled closer to his mother, smiling in his sleep.

* * *

(A/N: From now on, author's notes will be at the beginning of each divider. Anything other than that are either translations, statements of lameness, or random comments that I couldn't resist not putting on. Now then, that little scene in the previous divider was pretty cool. Come on, wasn't the little boy cute? X3 Okay, yes I know, the story. Must get on with the plot now. This WILL get more interesting. This chapter might end up being seriously long now. This is already the fourth page, no double-space, and I'm not even half-way through my chapter three occurrences. AND I'm getting distracted by youtube. Not good. Erementar Gerad is interesting. And I'm not even bothering with paragraphs unless it's after a divider or it's after a quote or unless it's looking too clumpy.)

Rukia's cellphone beeped. She quickly looked at the screen before turning to stare at Ichigo. Everyone else followed her example. Hitsugaya opened one eye to stare sideways at him. Ichigo looked around at everyone confusedly.

"What? Why are you all staring at me like that? It's kind of creepy."

Rukia chuckled evilly. (Kukukuku) Ichigo had a feeling something bad was about to happen. He was right.

"There's a hollow in the district, Ichigo. Shouldn't you go kill it?"

Ichigo recoiled from the evil aura emanating from Rukia.

"Um, yeah. I think I'll go now, as a matter of fact."

"That's what I thought. The substitute shinigami is such a good boy to go kill hollows."

Ichigo quickly took out his substitute shinigami tablet. (A/N: If anyone knows what that's called, then review and tell me. I don't intend on calling it a "substitute shinigami tablet" thingie for the rest of the fanfiction.) He was catapulted out of his body and it slumped onto the floor. Shinigami Ichigo quickly slid open the door, almost crashed into an eavesdropping Urahara, and quickly rushed away to annihilate the hollow before Rukia could get pissed off even more.

Hitsugaya closed his eyes and sighed once more. He stood up and said,

"Well, as we don't seem to be getting anywhere, I suggest we follow Kurosaki. It'll give us all a break and it'll keep Kurosaki from getting into any trouble."

Everyone agreed unanimously and they all filed out to follow Ichigo, not bothering to come out of their gigais as they were going mainly to take a break and to watch over the substitute shinigami. Urahara saw them to the shop front and stood there, waving good bye to them with Ururu and Jinta standing beside him.

"Come back in one piece, if you please! Make sure Kurosaki comes back in one piece as well!"

Renji stared back over his shoulder at the former twelfth-division captain.

"That guy's really starting to annoy me. Was he seriously the genius twelfth-division captain?"

Matsumoto crossed her arms behind head and announced in that lazy way of hers,

"Well, not all geniuses look like geniuses. For example, we have a certain someone among us who lacks the ability to stare down his subordinates because of the fact that he's vertically challenged. But that's not his fault. It could merely be a sign that he's going to stay small for the rest of his life,"

Matsumoto continued on, completely ignoring the icy glare that Hitsugaya was shooting up at her from his low vantage point.

"Yet, besides all this, he's considered a prodigy among us shinigami. There's one very good example to prove my point. Geniuses don't look at all like geniuses."

Hitsugaya continued glaring icily at Matsumoto. Suddenly, she looked down and noticed, as if for the first time, that her small, silver-haired captain was glaring up at her.

"What is it, taishou? Did I say something?"

Everyone else edged away slowly from the pair.

Matsumoto spent the rest of the walk trying to keep her teeth from chattering and rubbing her hands together to keep from freezing to death. Hitsugaya was now in the lead at the front. Everyone else kept a respectable distance away from the tenth division captain, as no one wanted to get frozen.

"Geez, he could have told me what he was mad about. I mean, what did I do to deserve it?" muttered Matsumoto through chattering teeth.

Hitsugaya pretended he hadn't heard.

* * *

(A/N: I would like to take this author's note to apologize for the extreme lateness of posting. When I started this chapter, I was living at my friend's house and I was given more freedom. Then, Mom came back and I was given less freedom. So, that is why this is being posted so late. I've had to change quite a lot of it. But it forced me to reread my chapter millions of millions of times. Then I added stuff to it to make it somewhat more interesting. Also, more apologizing for OOC-ness. If you need to complain about OOC-ness, complain in a review. Gomenasai, minna-san!)

Ichigo grunted with effort as he slashed through a hollow mask. Almost directly afterwards, another white mask grinned in his face. He sliced through that too. Alighting upon the ground, he sensed a hollow presence behind and he speedily raised his zanpakutou for another quick slash that disintegrated the hollow. He groaned aloud.

"Why am I always the one who gets to do the small fry? And why the hell do they keep coming!?"

The hollows paid no heed to his laments and they continued coming. Ichigo bared his teeth and charged towards a hollow, Zangetsu raised up high.  
"Fine! If you want to come, then I'll just keep killing you until you all die!"

A bright flash lit up the sky as Zangetsu sliced the sky. The hollow screamed and disappeared. Ichigo smirked and brought Zangetsu up to rest across his shoulders, his hand still grasping the handle. Then, he noticed in the distance, in the half-shadows of the nearby building. Dark hair, dark clothes and silver eyes. She was leaning against a wall, hands shoved into her pockets, looking, for all the world, like your average tomboy. (A/N: Yes, I'm kind of tomboy-ish. Deal with it. I love my Mary Sue and you can not discourage me with flames! _Determined look_ Oh, and I'll have a sketch or drawing of my character up on Deviant Art soon and I'll include a link. Please don't laugh at my scary drawings, okay? Play nice!) But the steady, calculating silver orbs gave her away. She had some sort of aura about her that kept people at bay from commenting about her appearance.

They stared at each other for a second. Then a hollow loomed up behind Ichigo and, quick as a flash, he sliced through it. The girl continued following the substitute shinigami's feats, unmoving except for the silver eyes.

* * *

(A/N: That was a very short divider. This is page six already. That might not seem like a lot, but I'm STILL not done with my plot line for this chapter. Maybe I should split the chapter up into two so you people won't be deprived of my updates. Anyway, more apologizing about OOC-ness. I'm really taking a long time on this fanfiction. I will have the picture up soon. I'm really tired right now. The moon decided to run away tonight because it felt like it. It made me low and tired. My ups and downs revolve around the moon. If it's a full moon, I'm majorly high and hyper. If it's a harvest moon, I start out being low and unenergized. Then I get hyper when it turns into a regular full moon. On the biggest full moon of the year, I was VERY hyper. I ran around saying "duck" to random people and snapping my fingers in their faces. Yes, that was me. And now I'm dead because the moon ran away. This is the reason why my name is Tsuki-chan (or Tsukiyo, Tsukiha, Tsuki, etc.). I have everything to do with the moon. I'm moon-obsessive. I spent an entire year's art projects on the moon, meaning everything I did in art had _something_ to do with the moon. Also, my favorite animal is the wolf and that also has everything to do with the moon. Silver is my favorite color and that also has everything to do with the moon. I should stop ranting and get back to my fanfiction shouldn't I? If you REALLY don't like my ranting, then please, please, PLEASE read and review!! Then I can take your reviews into consideration and change my habits. Okay? Promise me, okay?)

Hitsugaya was taking his time getting to Ichigo. If Ichigo got into any trouble, he could always sense the increase in reitsu and then rush over with his most advanced form of shunpo. He had his soul ejector (A/N: It's the weird "candy" they eat that separates the shinigami from the gigai. No it's not called Soul Candy. That's only for the women's shinigami group. But Hitsugaya's not a girl, is he? For certain few who said yes to the question, you all should get abducted by Aizen and tortured to death. If you said no, then you rock and actually take this seriously. Good job for you!) in his pocket in case he needed to come out of his gigai and he had everyone who was recruited from Soul Society walking silently and respectfully behind him. Matsumoto was still muttering, but the frost had long since melted, so she wasn't freezing anymore. At least she wasn't being loud like before.

When they passed a street, they heard a voice call them. Matsumoto suddenly perked up quite a bit and yelled a greeting.

"Good evening, everyone!" said a very out-of-breath Inoue, who had just ran up the street to them, "Is everything alright with your mission? Where's Kurosaki-kun?"

Matsumoto answered for everyone,

"Oh, everything's going just fine! Kurosaki went to do his shinigami duties. We're going to supervise him."

Inoue lit up.

"Can I come? Maybe I can train a bit while I'm there and then, if anyone gets injured, I'll be there to help!"

"Of course you can come! Where's Chad? Is he at home? Because if he is, then we should probably have one of us there to guard him," said Matsumoto.

Inoue smiled.

"Of course not! When you told all of us to watch out for the arrancar, we've all avoided being alone somewhere. So, I asked him if he wanted to come with me to find Kurosaki-kun. So that's why he's here!"

Everyone stared blankly at her, except Hitsugaya, who had noticed the slight reitsu approaching them from behind. Inoue pointed to the space above their heads and they all turned to look at Chad, who seemed to just have appeared from nowhere. Of course, that wasn't possible, but they still looked surprised to see him the big guy there. He raised his hand in his customary silent greeting and then dropped it. Hitsugaya sighed.

"Can we continue now? Please remember what we set out to do in the first place."

Everyone started towards Ichigo's reitsu again, this time with Inoue and Chad tagging along.

Suddenly, Hitsugaya tensed up and stopped abruptly.

"Shit," he murmured under his breath.

He motioned to the others quickly and urgently.

"All who know shunpo, do the fastest form you know. Everyone, get out of your gigais. The people who don't know shunpo, catch up later. Make sure Orihime and Yasutora are well-protected. Quickly!"

There was no need for him to explain this sudden outburst. Everyone had, by now, noticed the high reitsu that had just appeared. It was coming from the direction they were heading for, where Ichigo was.

All the shinigami got out of their gigais and, after directing the souls in the gigais to safety, they quickly rushed to their destination.

* * *

(A/N: Yes, that was lame. Somehow, everything happens to end up like that. The gang sense a strong reitsu and then they rush quickly over, they beat 'em up and then they go home, just to do the same exact thing again the next day. Is it my fault this chapter was planned badly? Of course not. It was Kurotsuchi's fault. XD EVERYTHING is Kurotsuchi's fault. No kidding. This is officially six and seven/eighths of a page long, meaning I'm almost through page seven. This is REALLY starting to get long. But it's getting near the end now. Hopefully. I still need to think about how I'm going to phrase everything. I'm really bad a planning things out. Gomene! I can multi-task really well. I'm doing Latin homework, while checking of Latin words in the textbook and the internet, while typing my fanfiction, while switching songs and listening to music, while trying to watch three youtube videos as the same time, while holding up my router thingie on my laptop so the signal is clearer, while refreshing and every few minutes to check for updates, while checking email and responding to them with on hand because I'm holding the router thing with the other hand. Aren't I talented? (You all: Not really. -.-;;) Wow, it really is the almost the end of page seven. I should now type my actual story now so I can finish it before Mom comes out of the shower and finds me typing my fanfiction instead of doing homework like I'm supposed to. I have probably the longest author's notes in the whole history of little boy turned his head, sensing something. He tugged his mother's sleeve.

"Okaa-san, do you feel that? I think something's happening."

His mother sensed it, too. She knelt down and said,

"I'm sure it's alright. But we should go quickly home. We don't want to be caught unawares by another one of those monsters again."

She stood up to go, but her little son turned away again, trying to figure out what was going on. Suddenly he ran forward towards the direction he had been looking in only a second ago. His mother, alarmed, ran after him.

"Come back! It's dangerous there! Let somebody else take care of them!"

The boy looked back over his shoulder, but didn't stop running.

"It's one-san! I sensed her just now! I think she needs help! This monster feels different from the other ones. It makes me feel heavy! Onee-san might be in danger!"

He continued running, his hair blowing backwards. His mother ran after him, desperately trying to keep him away from the danger she knew was up ahead.

The boy reached the end of the street and slowed down. His mother took this chance to run up to him. She put her arms around him protectively, panting. Then she turned to see a large crossroad of streets. All the buildings around it were all somehow damaged. In the middle of it all, there was a figure in black who had a large butcher's knife in his hands and had the most unusual hair color. Beside him was, as the little boy had known, the black-haired girl, who had remained nameless throughout their entire time of acquaintance. Both were bleeding from several scratches.

Too busy to notice anything else besides her adversary, the girl threw up her hands, grasping her right wrist with her left hand.

"Hadou no san juu-ichi, Shakkahou!" (A/N: Translation: Hadou # 31, Shakkahou or Red Cannon. At least I think that's the translation. Correct me in a review if you want)

A red blast of spiritual energy erupted from her palm and sped at light speed towards the giant hollow with practiced accuracy. It hit the mark perfectly, but the problem was, the hollow didn't seem to want to give up. It just raised its mask once more out of the cloud of destruction that it was in and roared. Ichigo bared his teeth and did another "Getsuga Tenshou," striking at exactly the same time as a Hadou no san juu-san (33) from the girl beside him. (Soukatsui – Way of Destruction) It barely marked the hollow. It screamed once again and charged. Both people sprang out of the line of attack and the girl tried once more to slay the hollow with a more advanced Hadou.

"Raikouhou!" (A/N: Hadou #63, Lightening Tiger Canon.)

A large explosion occurred and all were momentarily blinded by the smoke and dust. Ichigo alighted upon the ground, furiously blinking to clear his eyes.

'_Did it work?'_ he thought.

The smoke cleared to show the hollow, crouched in a defensive position with an opaque blue shield around it. The girl's silver eyes widened in shock. How was this possible? Hollows could not form shields. This one was already close enough in size and power to be a Menos Grande. Somehow, this incident seemed to have something to do with the incident the night before. Two arrancar came and attacked, supposedly to check out the strengths of the recruits and then, the day directly afterwards, a giant hollow attacked them. This hollow seemed powerless enough, but it wasn't normal. It wasn't powerful enough to be a Menos Grande and yet it had other powers that hollows were not supposed to have. It didn't make sense!

The girl bared her teeth slightly, her first real display of distress, and launched herself towards the hollow, her hands raised in front of her in preparation for another kidou attack.

'_I gave up my position in Soul Society a long time ago. I made a promise, a decision. I cannot and will not break that right now, even in the direst of situations. No, kidou is my only form of offense and defense now. It does not mark me out as one of them. I gave up being one of them.'_

The hollow swept its arm down to smash its attacker, but she disappeared into the air only to rematerialize in the air behind it.

"Hadou no 63 (A/N: Don't know the romanji for this number. Gomene!), Rai--,"

Her eyes widened in surprise. The hollow had disappeared into thin air, almost like shunpo. A sudden reitsu appeared behind her. She barely had time to turn her head around, much less dodge. The large, clawed hand hit her hard and fast, the force of it crashing her down to earth and into the remains of the wall of a building. Ichigo swore before launching back into action.

* * *

(A/N: I nearly forgot that I had an author's note here. The action was so intense that I nearly forgot! This is where it gets interesting. Keep reading! I'm VERY proud of my writing here. I actually almost succeeded in writing a _good_ chapter! Kudos to me!)

Her black hair tumbled down onto her back as she struggled up onto her hands and knees. Her hair had come untied when she crashed into the rubble. Panting hard, covered with bruises and bleeding from several cuts and scrapes, she looked up. The hollow was engaged in a fight with Ichigo. It deflected his Getsuga Tenshou with its mysterious shield and caught Ichigo unawares. He was thrown backwards and he crashed into a building as well. The dark-haired girl let an annoyed expression cross her face for an instance before turning serious again.

'_Figures. He's only a substitute shinigami after all._'

Now, she concentrated on getting up, but as she twisted her head, she saw something out of the corner of her line of vision. Lifting her body up slowly, she turned her head to look and confirmed her fear. The little boy whom she had adopted as the younger brother she never had was running towards her, his young mother running breathlessly after him, yelling for him to stop.

"Onee-san!"

She whipped her head around, searching for the hollow. It had heard the boy's voice and now, it turned towards the running boy, its foul breath rasping through the teeth of its white mask. The dark eyes behind the mask glittered dangerously as the mouth opened, tasting the scent of the new soul that had just arrived. For the first time in a long while, the steady, unblinking silver eyes showed fear, not for herself, but for the almost-family she had managed to gain and the little boy who had adopted her as his sister without a second thought.

"No! Stay back! Don't come any closer!" she cried desperately, but the little boy continued towards her.

The hollow turned away from Ichigo, who was bleeding from nasty cut on his head and trying to steady himself enough to attack his foe. The white mask opened its mouth in a roar, coming towards the boy. The boy stopped abruptly, fear freezing him in place. Struggling to stand, the girl put her hands up, a ball of energy gathering in her palm. She had to kill the hollow now. Whatever happened, she _had_ to kill the hollow. She couldn't risk blood on her hands. Not again. She didn't think she'd be able to deal with it again. Everything turned out the way it did because of that. She wasn't about to let it happen again. She didn't want to ruin another person's life.

She'd decided. She couldn't let another person die at her hands. She couldn't, wouldn't allow it. Last time, she'd faltered and she'd paid dearly for it. She had shattered the hearts and souls of all who had been present and she'd scarred her own soul for life from the guilt and horror. She'd hardened her resolve and she wasn't going to let anything get in her way.

* * *

(A/N: Okay, deal with it. The last paragraphs of that divider were really lame and stupid. Deal with it. I'm on serious writer's block right now and I'm attending a funeral on Thursday so it isn't exactly the perfect situation for me to write a chapter. But I'm trying my best. I'm trying so very hard to finish this chapter and catch up on my homework at the same time. It's very hard to sneak time to type this while pretending to do homework while actually _doing_ my homework. Very confusing indeed. Yes, anyway, my character is going to remain nameless until the next chapter so stay tuned and R&R. I mean it. If you don't, I'll come to you on some dark and terrible night and I'll bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you! Sorry, I reread the Crucible and I got addicted to that line. On with the story! It is almost over, the chapter anyway. I was going to make it longer, but this is already page 10, single-spaced. So, naturally, I cut is short. So here you are. No, actually, this is the _end_ of page 10 and I'm going to start page 11. )

He was frozen. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't move. Fear relentlessly gripped him, grounding his feet into the ground and freezing every limb and muscle. It was the bane of all, shinigami and human, and it wasn't about to give mercy to a little boy.

The hollow rushed toward him, neck outstretched, teeth bared for the kill. The bloodlust emanating from it was overwhelming and the energy alone was enough to multiply gravity by 10. The boy fell to his knees from the pressure. His mother, who was a couple of feet behind him, was already full-length on the floor, trying to take the spiritual energy. It was evident that the boy had more spiritual power than his mother, and that meant that the monster's first target would be her son.

She clawed at the sidewalk with her hands, striving to protect her only son. Tears ran down her face to mingle with the sweat from her efforts. _'No,_' she thought_, 'NO!'_ The hollow was almost on him, spittle flying out of its mouth from the wind pressure. _'NO!!!_'

The dust from the ground rose in swirls around the boy and frightened eyes met the huge dark ones of the white mask. There was an explosion of dust from the ground as the hollow collided with the earth and a large scream of triumph from the hollow. The mother screamed as loud as she could. But it was in vain. She could do nothing and she knew it. Tears ran freely down her face now, disheveled hair whipping her face.

After the explosion, there was nothing. Quietness ruled the clearing. Ichigo struggled to regain his balance. He rushed into the dust cloud as far as he could. Still nothing. Peering through the dust, he finally made out the hollow. His eyes widened in surprise.

On the outskirts of the clearing, Hitsugaya shunpoed into view with Matsumoto right behind him.

"Damn, we weren't fast enough," growled Hitsugaya.

Matsumoto squinted through the blowing sandstorm.

"Oi, Ichigo! You in there?" she yelled.

Behind them, the rest of the group appeared, Inoue and Chad both panting heavily. Inoue lifted her hands to her and yelled,

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Everyone waited for a response. As the dust settled, the sound of the hollow cut through the air. Everyone watched expectantly for any sign of Ichigo.

The air became clear and scene unfolded before them. Ichigo was standing a couple of feet off, looking quite astounded. A woman lay on the sidewalk, one hand reaching forward. At the center of the clearing was the hollow. Its head was sealed in place by six glowing beams of light, crisscrossing through its neck. Its teeth had extended and were now razor sharp, and those teeth were now buried in the comparatively small figure of a dark-haired girl. She was breathing hard. There was already a pool of blood around her. Her hands were raised up in the hollow's mouth, maintaining the continuance of her binding spell. The little boy lay behind her, drenched in his protector's blood, staring with wide eyes.

"O-onee—san?"

The girl didn't respond at first.

"Onee-san?" he asked urgently.

She lifted her head slightly, her dark hair looking even darker from the blood that it was soaked in. Her steady silver eyes were still steady and defiant. Blood had flowed down from her forehead down her face, making bloody streaks coming from her eyes.

"…Don't call me…Onee-san…I don't deserve it…" she finally hissed.

The boy fell silent from shock. (A/N: I'm shocking myself by writing this bloodiness and depressing-ness. I didn't know I could make this so…_depressing_! When did I learn to write depressing things? Am I depressing you? If I am, then I officially claim that I have a psychological problem with my mind. I think and act like a writer when I'm most definitely not. Sorry if I'm depressing you. But please, read until the end. After you get past this depressing part, everything will be all better…maybe. But still, read until the end please.)

The hollow growled through its teeth, the foul smell of its breath coming through and making the girl feel like throwing up.

"…I promised to protect this family…and I'll not break my promise…for the likes of you…" she growled. The hollow dug its teeth into her harder. She clenched her teeth together to stop herself from crying out. She had to do this, for the boy's sake and for her own sake. If her body shattered, her soul would still be whole and that's all that mattered. She could live with a shattered body, but she couldn't live with a broken soul.

Inoue gasped as she saw the girl who had saved them yesterday in the jaws of the giant hollow. She visibly flinched when the hollow bit harder, along with everyone else who was present. The hideous sound of cracking bones was heard. (A/N: (shock at what I'm writing) Ugh. What in the world made me write this?) Ichigo bared his teeth and tightened his grip on Zangetsu.

"Why you bastard. You'll pay for it…"

He swung his zanpakutou out in front of him and was about to rush forward when the girl shouted as loud as she could,

"Don't come any closer…There's nothing you can do…The hollow can activate a shield. …You wouldn't be able to do anything anyways. So just stay there…I have to do this myself…"

Ichigo lowered his sword reluctantly.

"But you…" he began.

"DON'T! JUST SHUT UP!!" she yelled. She broke off at the end to gasp for air.

To everyone's surprise, the hollow began to shudder, making a noise. Everyone stared incredulously at it. Was it…_laughing_?

The hollow then spoke in a low and ominous voice, dripping with sarcasm and mockery.

"You fool! You think this tiny spell will stop me? You may know shinigami arts, but it is not enough to stop the likes of me! Your actions are worthless. I'll just kill you before I kill everyone else. And, like you so cleverly noticed before, my shield will keep all of them at bay and they will have no choice except to let me defeat them and eat their souls!" (evil laughter from the hollow…no, that didn't really happen. It's just you. But if you want the evil laughter to be there, then you may insert it.)

He laughed again, (I decided to make it laugh, just because of everything.) but was cut off by a hiss from the girl.

"Don't talk so big…as if…you're the boss…one blast from me and you'll die..."

Defiant silver eyes were raised to face the endlessly dark, hollow eyes and, from inside the hollow's mouth where her hands were still raised, a sphere of red energy gathered in her hands.

The girl smiled slightly.

"…expect no mercy from me..."

To her surprise, the hollow laughed again.

"I like your attitude. Too bad you have to die. Did you forget that I can break this spell as easily as you would squish an ant?"

Her eyes widened as the six beams of light shattered and the hollow threw up his head, releasing the energy that was stored behind the binding spell. It looked down at the two pitiful figures at its feet.

The girl now lay on her side, one hand clutching her shoulder, the other trying to support her weight. She immediately moved herself so that she was in front of the little boy behind her.

"Stupid human girl! You'll die and you'll give your soul!"

It shot down, its mouth opened, coming in for the final attack.

The girl embraced the little boy, protecting him until the last.

The shinigami present all drew their swords and rushed in.

Blood spattered onto the sidewalk. Everyone stopped abruptly. The girl looked up, silver eyes confused. The sight that greeted her froze her in her tracks. Ragged clothes, disheveled hair and young eyes. It was the woman.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yes I know. That has got to be the worst ending to a chapter you could possibly have. But is it my fault this is more than twelve pages long and I've got major writer's block and I'm over here having to deal with numerous things? Of course not. We all know it's Kurotsuchi's fault and it always will be Kurotsuchi's fault. Banzaii! I finished it! _Voila!_ Here it is! The 3rd installment in my beautiful story! It is the longest chapter yet and the most depressing yet. Yeah, well. Anyways, please R&R.

Also, if any of you are willing to proofread for me for later chapters before I actually post it on then send me message and next time I finish a chapter, you get to proofread and give me suggestions. Okay? If nobody feels like proofreading it, then fine, I'LL try and proofread it. But I suck at proofreading and personally, I don't really like reading my badly-written chapters over and over.

I'm not going to post review replies on here anymore just because I don't feel like it. I'll just reply directly to your reviews. Thanks once again to charcol, FireyFlames,Yozora Nozomi, and NotSupposedToBeHere for reviewing. Thank you to Yozora Nozomi and goddess of wind44 for adding this to their favorites. Thanks to charcol and NotSupposedToBeHere for putting this story on their alert list. We love you! Now, follow their example and REVIEW!!!!!!!!

Review to give me suggestions, comments, flames or anything. Just, please do review. Tell your friends and people you know who have accounts to read and review my story. Tell them it's because I'm a review-guzzling maniac who lives off of reviews and can't bear to be without them. REVIEW!!!!! IT'S IMPORTANT FOR MY WELL-BEING!!!!

Well, see ya until the next chapter! (penny drops) the _next chapter_! Oh geez, now I have to type the NEXT chapter. If I take too long again, feel free to message me and scream at me to update and hurry up. Yay! Click the blue button in the lower left hand corner and REVIEW!!!! I MEAN IT!!!!

THERE ARE 35 DAYS UNTIL HITSUGAYA'S BIRTHDAY!!! (crazy fangirl cheers)

Tsuki-chan


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Yay! I'm back! Sorry for the long wait! I got kind of lazy after my blackbelt test. By the way, I'm now officially a blackbelt! Let's go beat up Aizen!! Okay, some changes. Due to some comments, I have decided to take out all in-story author's notes just because they distract the plot. I will only put them in the beginnings and endings. Unless there is a translation to be made of course, which is not often. Okay! This is the end of the depressing violence scene with the hollow and the poor little boy and the poor woman! I've discovered that I repeat myself too often in depressing scenes and I ask too many rhetoric questions. But deal with it for just this while, okay? I'm typing this at one in the morning while waiting for a Jigoku Shoujo episode to load. It's a really good anime by the way. I adore Enma Ai. She shall be my idol. XD

Disclaimer: ...etc.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: THERE ARE 361 DAYS UNTIL HITSUGAYA'S BIRTHDAY!!! XD

Now, on with the story! Also, please forgive any random weird attempts at metaphors. I'm trying to follow good advice!

Thanks to FireyFlames, NotSupposedToBeHere, Amelia Wilson, yuki-tenshee, InEspertaNinja, xaznloverx, Karia Ithilai, Yozora Nozomi, and xenocanaan for reviews! It means so much to me that you all reviewed! Welcome to the reviewers gang, newbies! (Y'all:...what the heck is wrong with her...) Also, special thanks to Karia Ithilai and RKInu241 for specially heeding my plees of help and reading my fanfiction and giving me good and helpful advice! Thank you so much! I'm heeding your advice right now! Thank you all! Also, thanks to pancakecows for a fav. (Awesome name! XD) Thanks to Karia Ithilai, NotSupposedToBeHere, Polyamide and xenocanaan for alerts! You all are awesome! To all who reviewed before, you know who you are! Give yourself a cookie for your awesome reviews!

* * *

Why? Why did it turn out like this? What had she done wrong? Maybe if she weren't so weak. Maybe if she'd defeated the hollow earlier on and had not been so stubborn and had released her full power. Maybe if she hadn't decided to get involved with Soul Society again, with shinigami again. 

Her thoughts whirled endlessly around in her head, like misty entrails. Outside the whirling tempest inside her, her face was frozen from shock, the scene before her reflected upon her silver eyes, boring the memory into her, holding her tight. The drip drip dripping of blood into the endless pool of crimson and the small form of the little boy crying piteously to his mother, burning themselves into her like hot brands. Before her, the spreading of dark blood enabled her to see her reflection, her scared, frozen reflection. A drop of crimson fell, making the surface of the pool shudder. She saw herself waver and disappear under a wave of ripples.

The boy reached out a hand up to his mother.

"Okaa-san," he cried, plaintively. He was too young to see these things, but here he was, a young boy pushed into the world, alone.

As if his cry had awakened her from a dream, the girl lifted her head slightly to see the boy reach his hand up to touch his mother's face.

"Don't," she wanted to shout, but her voice wasn't obeying her. She could only move her lips silently, her face displaying the horror of what she knew would happen next.

The woman raised her head and looked down at the pale little hand, outstretched. In an effort, she lifted her arm, holding up her hand to meet her son's. Then, a white flash, a cry and nothing but redness. The little boy screamed.

Lifting his claw from the stained red concrete rubble, the hollow inspected the blood now covering his long claws and licked his foreclaw. Then he looked down at the indentation he had made in the earth and at the now unidentifiable (SP!) mass of blood, rags and crushed bone. It seemed to be in thought. Finally, it said,

"Hm, not bad. That one had some spiritual powers. Too bad I squished it. It would have been an appetizer for the main meal of shinigami."

It clacked its bloody claws together.

"How about it? Want to have dinner together?"

The last syllable dissolved into an otherworldly roar. It shook her back to her senses. Her main priority was to protect the boy, no matter what happened. Leaping forward, she grabbed the boy and rolled away from the target point of the hollow's attack, the tiny form clutched firmly to her body, protecting him from any flying debris. As soon as the hollow's attack hit the earth, she sat up, alert and ready, still holding the boy. Black forms appeared around the crater in the ground and the flash of metal was seen as the shinigami joined the fight at last. Ichigo managed to fire a Getsuga Tenshou, but the result didn't make much difference except to make the hollow even madder with the pain and sight of good souls to devour.

Sitting there, watching the battle, the girl kept her arms around the boy. They both looked on as the shinigami struggled with the hollow. Hitsugaya finally released his sword into shikai and a blast of cold air shot through the two figures on the side, making icicles begin to form on the ground around them. The giant ice dragon swooped triumphantly in the air, its very presence giving off a sense of power, and it swung around the struck down at the hollow, completely freezing its form. Hitsugaya drew back Hyourinmaru, panting slightly, watching the frozen gargantuam form of the hollow. Feeling Matsumoto's presence by his shoulder, he heard her say,

"Is it dead?"

He narrowed his eyes.

"Doubt it."

He proved to be correct as the ice swelled into a ball, growing bigger and bigger by the second until at last, it burst, spraying water and melting ice particles everywhere. A sharp piece of ice grazed the girl's already bleeding cheek, opening a new scratch. Turning back to see what was happening, she felt a soft presence at her back and she whirled around to find the ghostly, outlined figure of the boy's mother. She watched the battle just as intently as they had before. Upon noticing that she had been discovered, the woman smiled and said,

"Don't worry. I'm sure I'll pass on soon. Really, I'm fine," she said, trying to reassure both the young girl and her son. The little boy immediately began crying and protesting, trying to get to his mother. The girl held him tight. She knew there was no use because he'd only pass through her soul. Looking down at the woman's chest, she saw the trademark chain attacked to her body.

"I'm sorry," she whispered numbly, "I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough to help you. I wasn't strong enough to prevent this."

The woman said softly,

"No, it's not your fault. We wouldn't have lived this long even if not for you. Don't blame yourself. I chose for this to happen; I chose this fate for myself when I put myself in charge of my son. I knew that whatever happened, I would always protect him. Nothing could have changed that."

The girl's expression didn't change. The dark hair half-covered her eyes, tangled but free of their usual bonds.

"Promise me," said the woman suddenly, "Promise me that you'll take good care of my son. He was the only one I had. If I had lost him, I wouldn't be able to live my life. So please, protect him like always and make sure he's a good boy."

There was no answer from the girl except her silver eyes turned up in surprise at her request. The woman took hold of her hands and knelt.

"Please! I'm begging you!"

The girl finally nodded her consent. Her eyes were still filled with guilt of what she had caused. A sudden shout from the battleground aroused them.

"Where'd it go, damn it!? We can't just let it escape!," came the voice of Renji. A second later, a shout from Ichigo,

"Watch out!"

And Renji went flying into the air, thrown away like a rag doll by a giant. Rukia rushed over to his aid along with Ichigo. Renji groaned and picked himself up.

"Damn hollow caught me off guard," he muttered as he tried to stop the bleeding from a temple wound.

"Maybe you weren't using your head," remarked Rukia. Renji turned and glared at her.

"Oh yeah!? Let's see you try and get close up!" he replied testily. Ichigo sniggered and got a glare as well.

A shout from Hitsugaya brought them back to the matter at hand.

"Pay attention! The hollow is attacking!"

All three shinigami turned around to witness the hollow flying towards the three figures on the side. They leaped forward, joining the pursuit of the hollow.

With as much speed as she could muster, the girl picked up the still-protesting boy and tried to get away from the monster. That was when the dizziness kicked in. She'd lost too much blood and her extensive movement had exhausted her. Her legs refused to support her weight and she fell. Clenching her teeth against the pain, she swore under her breath. Feeling the fast-coming reitsu, she grabbed hold of the boy and scrambled back up onto her feet. In front of her, she saw the open cavern of the hollow skull. Then, her eyesight seemed to change into a whole new scope. Her view looked as if it were seen through a transparent, colored sheet. Looking up, she saw the soul of the boy's mother.

"Don't worry," she calmly whispered, "Promise to keep him safe for me."

* * *

HONTOUNI HONTOUNI HONTOUNI GOMENASAI!!!!!!! (kneels on floor and bows ten times) I'M SO SORRY! THIS IS ALL I COULD GET IN!! I PROMISE I'LL POST A LONGER CHAPTER NEXT TIME!! SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!! I KNOW I'M A LAZY IDIOT AND I DESERVE TO DIE AND I STILL HAVEN'T POSTED MY STORY FOR HITSUGAYA FOR HIS BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! (abuses herself and starts tearing out hair) I'M SO SORRY!!!!! I PROMISE I WILL POST ASAP!!!! SO PLEASE DEAL WITH MY STUPIDNESS!!!!!!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!!!! IF YOU DON'T CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS, THEN THIS IS JUST A VERY SHORT CHAPTER!!! GOMENASAI!!!!!!!!!! 

Tsuki-chan

There are 361 days until Hitsugaya's birthday

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	5. Chapter 5

-1A/N: I'm back and I'm really sorry for the long wait! You all know how slowly I update! I have to sneak on to type and I'm a slow typist. This chapter is not nearly as long at chapter 3, but that's okay. It's probably longer than chapter 4 and that's what matters.

This is where you might get to learn my character's name! ((theatrical gasp)) And you'll be able to see visually what my OC character looks like! ((theatrical gasp)) Anyway, my friend decided to give back my drawings, so all I have to do is make a few changes, scan it in, and post it on deviant-art for you all to see how bad I am at drawing. Thank you for adding me to a C2 community! I feel so special now!

I got addicted to Chrono Crusade manga over this period of time. The manga is so sad and depressing and good! The anime totally messes everything up and most of the time, I was sitting there with my mouth wide open going, "WTF DID THEY DO TO IT!?!" As I said, the anime messes the manga up and the manga is so much better. I only got up to episode 10 and I'm already starting to glare at it. What the hell were those people thinking when they made the anime?! Ah well. I'm still waiting for Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori episode 12. I get to wait until after Chinese New Year because it's supposedly bad luck to watch anything relating to death near Chinese New Year. I can't watch Jigoku Shoujo until March. ((tear tear)) But I'm not going to stop watching Bleach because I don't feel like it.

I also got addicted to Chinese TV dramas (or soap operas) because they are awesome. But that's only the dramas happening in the past and not modern times because modern-day TV dramas are all lovey-dovey and it's really annoying. But I'm mostly addicted to Chinese TV dramas that happen in the past and include great fight scenes and magic! I call it magic by the way because nobody can tell the difference between martial arts kick-punch-fly kung fu and magical I-can-use-invisible-air-to-kill-you-without-having-to-touch-you kung fu. There is a difference. It's so funny when they use "kung fu" to fly. Actually, now that I think about it, the term is not kung fu. It's "wu gung" if you write it the Mandarin pronounced way. I guess it would be "wu kung" if you spell it the way everyone knows. The "kung" in "kung fu" is the same as the "gung" in "wu gung" so it would basically be "wu kung." (Now it sounds weird when I say it…) I'm filling up a lot of space. Condors are cool. XP And you're probably thinking I'm the weirdest person in the world. XP 'Cause I am!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all because I probably won't be able to update fast enough to say it in time! Check out my profile in case I decide to put up my OC drawing! (which is not very likely…)

Thanks to Yuki Blossom, KaRiSa, Azalie-Kauriu, NotSupposedToBeHere, and Yozora Nozomi for reviewing my story! Thanks to StarPup, Yuki Blossom and kamicomeget for a fave! You all rock! I'm going to adopt the how-many-reviews-equals-the-next-chapter technique. I'm not going to post up chapter 6 until I get at least…um, let's see…5 reviews for starters. Okay? So R&R!! Special thanks to KaRiSa for reminding me to post quickly.

Chapter 5

Everything clicked into place as she stared up at the spectral figure of the soul. The poor woman was going to sacrifice herself because once again, she was too powerless to protect anyone. She clenched her fist as she held the struggling boy in a secure but harmless headlock to prevent him from running away and getting hurt.

As the hollow advanced, the specter turned around and her eyes were calm and peaceful.

"Thank you," was all she said as she turned forward and met her fate.

Jumping out of the way with the boy safely tucked under her arm, the girl fought the guilt and sorrow overwhelming her. Landing on her side, the boy clutched to her chest, she lifted her head to look back.

The soul was no more and she watched the chain slowly disappear into the gaping hole of the white mask. It turned to her.

"Not bad. I still managed to get something to eat. But the real prize is yet to come," as it turned once more to face the two small figures in the rubble.

Several black forms zeroed in on the hollow then, icicles forming on the hollow and the surrounding trees as Hyourinmaru soared through the night sky. Blast after blast of dark blades of energy were released from Zangetsu while Matsumoto and Rukia took turns at slashing on either side.

Renji was being treated on the sidelines by Inoue. He wasn't very happy about having to sit out. He was constantly twitching and protesting in his eagerness to get back into the fight. Chad acted as a guard for Inoue and Renji while watching the battle apprehensively, though no one could really tell unless they studied his stone-like face very carefully. He started when he saw the hollow eat something or someone. Renji cursed before leaping up and grabbing Zabimaru.

"That's all I'm going to take. I'm going in! That stupid Ichigo will get his head bashed in if I don't!" he growled before shunpoeing off and appearing in the midst of the battle, fully regenerated and swinging away in bankai form.

Inoue turned her attention back to the battle, her brows creased worriedly.

'_I hope Kurosaki-kun is alright,'_ she thought silently to herself.

She closed her eyes, hands clasped tightly in front of her as the angry roars of the hollow wrenched threw the air.

Lying still on her side, not caring if her hair covered her face, she wept silently. The little boy lay still as well, crying because he was alone in the world, all alone. At the edge of her conscious mind, she heard shouts of a struggle.

What were they fighting about? What had she been fighting for?

Oh, that's right. They were fighting that hollow. The same hollow who had destroyed the life of one person and had destroyed many others in a single movement.

Then, through the white noise of the shock of her realizations, she heard a single noise. Laughter. It was a woman's laughter. It seemed familiar. Who?

The little boy seemed to know who it was. His face suddenly brightened as he turned his head up in the opposite direction of the battle. She watched his expression change into a horrified look before he opened his mouth to ask why.

He never got the chance.

The new hollow with the voice of his mother shot him through the head with her pointed tongue, laughing at the promise of a good meal. The long appendage went in the middle of the forehead, spearing all the way through, blood exploding out as the sharp point burst through the back of his head. He never had the chance even to cry out.

Her eyes were wide, taking in the full horror of the scene. Following the line of the tongue, she saw the characteristic white mask of a hollow on a black body, laughing triumphantly, completely oblivious to the fact this had been her son in the previous life.

A long cry came up from the clearing, echoing in the air. Inoue opened her eyes and was about to rush forwards when Chad blocked her way and shook his head silently. It was the girl. Something bad had happened.

Hitsugaya turned to see the black-haired girl throw out her arm in a slicing movement, releasing several dagger-like beams of silver reitsu. They each embedded itself in a point of the female hollow's mask and it deteriorated, showing for a moment the face of the woman, eyes closed as if asleep, before her soul was transported to Soul Society, taking with it the soul of the little boy who was her son.

Two twin hell moths lifted themselves into the air, bringing a sense of silence and finality with each beat of their gentle wings. They disappeared into the soft light of the moon as slowly, quietly, like the whispers of a thousand moths, it began to rain.

She fell to her hands and knees from the combined effort of forcing herself to her feet and concentrating her reitsu long enough to aim and fire. All around her, the gentle droplets of water made little patches of wetness so that it began to look like a dappled stone garden.

As the ground melted into a darkened shade of gray, she lifted herself shakily onto her knees and gradually straightened up. Walking past the mutilated corpse of the little boy, she didn't glance at it. Her face was shadowed, but she was trudging slowly on through the blood and rain to the battle.

Slowly, she passed by the shinigami, one by one, until she finally stood at the head of the group, facing the giant hollow itself.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Rukia through all the rain. She fired off a red ball of energy as the hollow roared. The girl stood there as if nothing was happening.

"You'll get killed! Get back! Leave it to us!" added Ichigo.

While the hollow was recovering from the blast, Hitsugaya ran forward and put his authority as a taichou into use.

"Let us handle it. This is not an ordinary hollow and you're in no condition to fight it," he said quietly, aware of the fact that the two humans who had just died at the hands of hollows were important to her.

"Let me fight it alone."

His eyes widened slightly at her request.

"Let me fight it alone," she repeated, her voice toneless and emotionless.

Matsumoto overheard.

"Are you crazy?! You'll get yourself killed and then we'll have to be responsible for your death!" she said half-jokingly, but received a glare from Hitsugaya that silenced her.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked the figure in front of him, "It's not going to solve anything if you die."

Her answer was simple.

"I won't die. Please. I want to fight it," she said again, and this time, a slight note of desperation could be heard in her words.

Silence from the shinigami as they tried to think of a way, any way, to stop her from walking to her death.

Suddenly, Rukia surprised them all, including herself, by saying,

"Let her fight. If she says she won't die, then she won't die. Let's go before she wreaks hell on that unfortunate hollow." Turning around, she walked a small distance away before calling back,

"Come on. She can handle it."

Everyone followed suit in wishing her luck and then joining Rukia. Inoue, seeing that they were retreating, quickly ran to join them with Chad following close behind. They filled her in as Hitsugaya sighed.

"She's either going to get herself killed or drastically injured. More chance of the former than the latter."

He sighed again and said,

"Everyone, make sure you're ready for action. If she can't handle the hollow, we'll have to make sure it doesn't get too out of control."

"Her pride's at stake. Don't jump into it too fast. Better to wait until the last moment," murmured Rukia. Why did everyone have to remind her of Kaien–dono? It always got people hurt the most successfully.

Hitsugaya contemplated the 13th division's shinigami for a while before finally nodding his consent.

Ichigo and Renji both turned to stare at her.

"What?" she asked.

"When did you get so wise?" asked Renji. He was awarded with a glare.

"It's not my wisdom. It's my taichou's wisdom. I'm merely enforcing it," she said dismissivly, though in her mind, she furtively wondered whether this time's choice was a wise decision.

(Warning: If you can't stand heavy violence, I suggest you skip this part. It starts getting rather…bloody. Actually, it was already pretty bloody, but it starts getting _really_ bloody. As in, it makes me feel like a bloodthirsty vampire. If you don't mind a lot of blood raining down by the gallons, then read on. I meant the raining blood literally. Also, watch out for disturbing and random insanity on my part and my OC's part. Don't tell me I didn't warn you. XP)

As the hollow's screams continued, the girl remained standing motionless in front of it. Her mind was concentrated on a single goal – to avenge the deaths of the only family she had known in a long time and had died because of her.

On the side, all eyes, shinigami and human, were trained on her. Waiting for her next movement.

In her mind, she mentally reached forwards towards the amazing mass of spiritual energy in front of her, pulling her spiritual self out of its boundaries. On the side, Inoue gasped as she saw an identical form erupt from the girl's body. What was now apparently a gigai was now lying on the floor behind her and the spiritual form of the girl remained standing, clothed completely in pure white from her simple, large-sleeved kimono top to her billowing hakama, both strangely dry-looking.

Hitsugaya contemplated this new occurrence. She wasn't wearing the attire of a shinigami yet she was in the spiritual form that shinigami use. Was she an escaped an escaped soul? The body on the ground behind her was definitely a gigai. How she managed to get out of it so easily was a mystery. One thing was for sure: she was not a normal human being. In fact, he doubted she was human at all. Just from her practiced way of performing demon spells and her agility proved that she had received teachings in the ways of a shinigami. But she didn't seem to have a zanpakutou.

Hitsugaya crossed his arms, making a mental note to himself to sort it all out in the research library of Soul Society when he got back. Now, he had to pay attention to the subject at hand.

The hollow was now eyeing its new opponent appreciatively.

"You have the smell of a shinigami. Funny, I couldn't sense it before," it muttered, mostly to itself, "Where's your little piece of metal they call a zanpakutou? All the other shinigami I've seen have it. It's so amusing watching them run around and try to attack me. It's annoying but amusing."

It leaned forward expectantly on its limbs, waiting for the girl to move.

"Go on! Attack me! It's no fun if you just stand there!"

No answer.

"What are you!? A coward?! Attack me, I dare you!" it said arrogantly with a raw-sounding laugh.

The girl lifted her head slowly. Through the darkness of her shadowed face, her silver eyes glowed ferociously with unconcealed power. Suddenly, the air around her burst with irrepressible reitsu, the wind buffeting away everything in the clearing. Bright waves of power emanated from her very person as she slowly lifted her uninjured arm over her head, palm up, as if she were summoning something. The rain that had continued falling through all the wind as if nothing was happening suddenly came down in huge torrents, chipping away at the asphalt and blowing in all directions with deadly accuracy, peeling the bark off trees and making miniature craters in the mud. The hollow let out a surprised cry that was lost in the deafening sound of pounding water. A sparkling violet shield glittered through the water droplets as the hollow activated its unique defense.

On the side, Inoue activated her shield as well and told everyone to get behind her. The pelting rain rammed into her shield harmlessly, though it took a lot for Inoue to keep it up. A bead of sweat on her temple glistened with the light of her shield.

Ichigo glanced worriedly back and forth from the battle and Inoue. Everyone else was equally worried.

Hitsugaya was thinking hard. Here was a girl who wasn't even a shinigami with reitsu strong enough to match any vice-captain or even a captain! He knew for sure that this was no exiled shinigami. During his academic years and more so when he first became a captain, he had browsed through the names and records of basically every division's shinigami so that he could recognize the strengths of each division. He had even looked through the members of the Onmitsukidou with permission from Soifong. There was no one who had the power to control rain and there was no way a regular local could gain such control and power without going through shinigami training.

His mind worked through all the records he had looked through, all the faces he had seen. A jolt of realization hit him. He turned his attention back to the battle, particularly on the girl's face. It couldn't be. It simply wasn't possible for a mere girl to gain such power and knowledge. Yet he knew somehow that it was. In his mind's eye, he saw the same expressionless face and steady, silver eyes framed by dark hair covering half her face. And he wondered how she had managed to get so far on her own. No one escaped Seireitei's notice for very long and yet she had managed it long enough to learn this much.

Hitsugaya looked up to find Matsumoto looking curiously at him. It was then that he noticed that he had been speaking aloud to himself.

"You know that girl don't you," asked Matsumoto. She said it seriously enough, though there was a suspicious glint in her eyes.

Hitsugaya knew fully well what that glint meant and he knew that he had better quickly deny what Matsumoto thought was going on before she spread it in a rumor throughout Soul Society.

"I'm not sure yet, so don't jump to any conclusions," was all he said before he crossed his arms over his chest, indicating to his vice-captain that he was not interested in saying anything else until he felt like it.

On the field, rain was still pelting down and the concrete was already starting to crack apart and buckle from the force of the liquid missiles. The girl swiftly chopped her arm towards the hollow. The rain immediately began targeting the violet transparency encircling the hollow.

The hollow had regained its composure after the outburst of reitsu. Its eyes glittered with all the light of the exploding water droplets reflected in its eyes. Now, it smirked.

"Is that all you can do, little shinigami? Bombard me with rain? Ha! Never seen a such a stupid tactic!" It laughed but immediately changed it into a surprised grunt when the shield protecting him began to crack. Delicate webs of cracks spread across the surface of the shield.

Finally, the water broke through, shattering the shield like glass. The winking shards of amethyst fell to the floor, their light turning the rain falling around them iridescent with different shades of pink and purple. With a single, powerful leap, the white-clothed figure flew through the falling crystal rain straight at the hollow, arms outstretched on either side, her clothing billowing out gently behind her like a pair of wings. It would have been a beautiful sight if it weren't for the bloodstained ground and the gargantuan form of the hollow. The bird-like effect was ruined when silver reitsu gathered in a long, pointed formation on her arm, sharp, glowing and fierce. The hollow's mirth had changed instantly to fury when its shield had broken and it roared out a bloodcurdling challenge as it raised both of its large, clawed hands. Bringing her glowing arm up over her shoulder, she came towards the hollow and slashed out at the same moment the hollow struck out at her with a lethal limb. She sailed past the hollow over its shoulder before landing lightly a couple of meters behind the hollow.

The clearing held its breath, the only thing that seemed to be moving being the now normally falling rain. Blood suddenly exploded from a wide cut along the side of the hollow's head and large chunk of white from the mask fell with a splash to the ground.

At the same time, blood spurted from a diagonal slash from the girl's shoulder to her hip, staining her white clothing with bright red liquid. She sank softly to the floor, one knee curled beneath her body and the other bent in front of her, clutching her shoulder. Her face was white enough to match the color of her attire.

The hollow stumbled forwards a few steps, trying to orient itself after the blow. It caught itself before it fell and its deep, rasping breathing echoed through the clearing.

Inoue had long since stopped her shield and had sat down, catching her breath and regaining her power. Of course, everyone ended up getting soaked. But getting soaked was a small thing compared to the fate of a girl. Rukia bit her lip when she saw the injuries to both sides. She began to doubt her decision, however strong the girl seemed to be. Ichigo clenched his fist, his other hand fingering the hilt of Zangetsu agitatedly. Hitsugaya furrowed his brows, keeping his thoughts in mind while he watched the battle. Without taking his eyes off the two forms in the rain, he called out to Matsumoto,  
"Matsumoto, can you see if Madarame and Yumichika are securing the area around here? We can't have other minor hollows running loose over town, destroying things. If you need to, go and join them. We need to make sure the town isn't wiped off the face of the earth before we want it to."

Matsumoto nodded and shunpoed off, rather reluctantly as she didn't wish to miss out on the fight.

The hollow had finally steadied itself. Laughing triumphantly, it screamed,

"A mere cut! Did you think I would die from that? Think again!" and it disappeared into air before appearing above the girl, claws outstretched and ready to rip.

Inoue gasped and instinctively raised her tightly clasped hands to her mouth, eyes apprehensive and worried. All the shinigamis' hands strayed to their sword hilts, but Rukia stopped them from jumping in to help.

'_Just a little longer. Then we'll go in. Come on,'_ she thought.

Just as the hollow's shadow fully enveloped her, she suddenly fazed out of sight. The hollow gave a surprised cry before it sensed a sudden appearance of power behind its shoulder. Flying white cloth shimmered into view as she brought her reitsu-covered arm down on the hollow and slicing down vertically. The hollow screamed as its blood splattered the night air, its stench filling the clearing. It turned around swiftly, swinging its clawed arm blindly through the air at its attacker. But she didn't give it a chance. She disappeared again and reappeared below the hollow and sliced off an arm. It fell to the floor in a sea of blood.

Inoue turned away from the gruesome sight and covered her ears from the resounding screams. Ichigo was watching with awe-filled horror and Renji seemed to be in the same condition. Rukia was silent, lips pursed.

Matsumoto suddenly reappeared and whispered something to her taichou before glancing at the battle. Her eyes widened slightly as she took in the scene,

"How'd she do it?" she murmured in an awe-filled voice, "All of us put together couldn't even touch it; how did she manage to get it?"

Hitsugaya nodded his agreement.

"What I want to know is, why is there such a hollow here in the first place?" he said quietly.

Matsumoto wasn't paying attention. (as usual.)

"Uh…when's she going to actually kill it?" she asked uncertainly.

Sure enough, the hollow wasn't dead, but was now groveling on the ground, giving pathetic sweeps at its tormentor with its one good arm. Its legs were severed at the mid-thigh and were now bloody stumps, bleeding long rivers of liquid that threaded its way through the rubble.

The white-clothed figure finally came to a stop just out of reach in front of the hollow's face. It lifted its head painfully and glared at her, blood dripping out of its panting mouth. Its breath hissed painfully in and out.

The girl's arm was stained with red with the hollow's blood. Her expression was impassive and her eyes seared through the darkness of the hollow's endlessly black eyes. And for the first time after its soul had been transformed into the monster it was, it felt fear race through its body.

The girl stepped slowly forwards, taking her time to revel in the triumph of torturing her family's murderer. In her damaged mind, she only knew of the woman and her son as her one and only family, even though they were not related. Her mind couldn't tell the difference anymore, for it had closed itself down from shock. The only thing that stood out from the muddle of memories was the vengeance she needed to take. And she would not rest until she had sated her desire for revenge.

The hollow suddenly screamed.

"Don't kill me! I beg you! I'll have to go back to that place! And they'll kill me! Please!"

Its voice had completely changed from the arrogant monstrosity it had been before to a pitiful, whimpering plea.

The girl stopped her advancement and her impassive eyes flashed for a moment with life. Out of the pool of memories, she saw something.   
_'Please don't kill me!…Stop, please!…I'll do anything…Don't kill…Why are you doing this?…You are a failure…Die!…'_

Her eyes widened as she tried to grasp the elusive flashback. In her mind, a picture began to form.

_Blood everywhere. And she knew she was the one who caused it. A whole squad of people in black clothing. And around her, a crowd was gathering._

'…_dangerous to be around…'_

'_Don't go near her…'_

'…_brought evil on our village…'_

'…_murderer…'_

_The voices continued on, to be joined with the sound of approaching footsteps and the smell of fear overwhelming her._

"Stop it," she whispered, bringing her hands up to cover her ears.

'…_demon…'_

'…_belongs with _them_…'_

"Stop it!" she said with more force, desperately trying to dam the flood of memories coming back to her. Her body was trembling.

_The footsteps were approaching. Shouts went up. _

'_Don't let her escape!'_

_Suddenly, she was alone, all alone in the stumbling darkness. She ran blindly on, trying to get away from her pursuers._

'…_DIE!…'_

She screamed. Why wouldn't they stop? Why wouldn't they be quiet?

In a fury of emotion, the rain began its deadly dance. The girl blindly threw burst after burst of reitsu, seeking to silence her tormentors. The rain continued strengthening until the thundering sound filled her head, washing away the voices and the fear. Slowly, as the realization of the silence dawned in her mind, the rain dwindled back to a harmless fall of water.

Opening her eyes, she stared out in front of her, slowly lowering her arms. The impassive look was back in her eyes, dimming the silver glow.

The hollow had been impaled by several glowing shafts of reitsu and the rain had not missed it. It lay motionless in its lifeblood. It was barely breathing.

As she stood over the hollow's form, her reitsu-covered arm down by her side, she felt something that surprised her. She felt pity for the poor creature she had mutilated and tortured. She pitied the soul of the monster who had been taken into darkness, never to return again.

Kneeling down, she hesitantly placed a hand on the cracked white mask. The hollow was whimpering, its voice made high and vulnerable from fear. The dark eyeholes looked up at her face to see that her silver eyes were shining with tears.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as the liquid coursed silently down her face, a river of sorrow.

The hollow's eyes lit up hopefully.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again, her voice barely audible. She quickly brought her arm down and sliced through the mask. The blood sprayed onto her, but she didn't care. The hollow's scream continued as the dark body melted away until the face of a young man, his face contorted with pain, was seen. That too melted away, dispersing into particles of ether.

The world was silent once more.

Turning her face up to the rain, she let the droplets cleanse her face of the blood and tears. But her skin still had the sticky, dead feeling that guilt left behind. Her clothes were ruined, soaked with blood and rainwater. Blood ran in rivers around her, mixing with the rain.

"I did it again didn't I," she murmured quietly to the gentle water that had been her sole companion for who knows how long. The rain continued its healing downfall.

"Heh. I know why you won't answer me anymore," she said.

Then, she laughed, a quiet but lilting laugh. The laugh of a child marked with edges of insanity.

Her voice died away and the world faded. She was aware of several dark shapes moving towards her, but she didn't care anymore. She couldn't feel, touch nor hear.

As the world faded into darkness, the steady sound of rain remained with her, her constant companion.

(A/N: Wow. Okay, bloodiness is officially over! You can read now. Basically, my OC kicked the hollow's butt and it died and she fainted. )

High above in the air, two silent white figures stood looking down at the bloody scene below.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes before turning around silently. A doorway appeared in the sky.

His companion, a large and bulky arrancar, glanced toward him.

"Is it time to leave? Good, I was starting to get sick of this wetness. But that was amusing. Aizen-sama won't be pleased that his newest model of killer-hollow didn't work."

Ulquiorra paused before saying,

"That was merely a prototype. He used it as a test. Now that we have the information recorded, we can put it to good use."

He stepped into the doorway, closely followed by his companion. The hole swallowed them up like a mouth closing up over the evilness within.

Yay! I finally finished! Everyone bow to me! ((dodges missiles)) Okay okay! I'm sorry for taking so long! As I've said before, I type during my homework time. It takes a while. So please forgive me! Thank you to all who reviewed! Remember the 5 reviews! I know you can do it! It's been passed before. Thank you all for reviewing, faving and alerting!

How did my OC character end up being an angst, mentally-insane child? ((sigh)) This is what happens when I don't plan my chapters and I just keep on writing and writing and writing until I just happen to come to the end of a chapter. No, I still don't have my drawing up. I'm currently working on New Year's pictures for all my friends. Check my profile in case!

Tsuki-chan -

There are 318 days until Hitsugaya's birthday!! (Yes I'm still keeping count!)


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I am so sorry for not updating in FOREVER!! This is also a really crappy (forgive my language) chapter. I typed up five pages a while ago, then left it because of many things in my life that suddenly emerged and required my full attention. When I finally got back to it, I couldn't get myself back on track. The interrogation is really…cheesy. Gomene!! ((takes on all the shoes that people are throwing)) I deserve it!

I have a wonderful beta who decided to volunteer even though I said that I would never be able to finish a chapter fast enough. Thank you to HitsugayaAngel for beta! In fact, I'm not even sure HitsugayaAngel will remember me because I didn't update for so long. ((guilt overwhelms))

Thank you to Yuki Blossom, NotSupposedToBeHere, KaRiSa, HitsugayaAngel, Yozora Nozomi, erina, andrewhot, DarkAquaGirl125, Tsanayi-sama and EvilBoyzR2Cute for reviewing. Thanks to HitsugayaAngel, DarkAquaGirl125 and Taiku Kazaky for faving. Thank you to DarkAquaGirl125, EvilBoyzR2Cute, HitsugayaAngel, IamAurora, Taiku Kazaky, and bloodoftheangels for alerts! Thanks to DarkAquaGirl125, Frankie Elric, Taiku Kazaky, and HitsugayaAngel for faves! Sorry if I missed anyone.

Disclaimer: I totally forgot to put this here. Anyway, I don't own any of the characters in Bleach aside from my OC, the mother and the son (who both died in the last chapter).

On with the story!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

_It was her first day. _

_Her first thought was that the academy was big – bigger than anything she had every known. _

_Gazing up at the large, traditional Japanese buildings, she took a deep breath and entered through the archway. A sign beside it said, "Welcome, New Students!"_

_First-day students in their new uniforms were swarming inside the courtyard. Many already knew each other and were forming into little groups to talk. _

_Looking around, she scanned the crowd for a familiar face. Of course, there were none. There was no one from her town. Her home was a small village in the outskirts of the 84__th__ District. It was too far away from Seireitei and the other districts to have many visitors. As far as she knew, she was the only one in the village who had shown promise to be a shinigami. Still, it wouldn't hurt to hope for a friend._

_She had always been quiet. As her village was small, there was not much excitement and everyone knew everyone else. Because everyone faced similar fears and struggles, it made the townspeople even more tight-knit. Everyone pitched into the community effort. They were all facing the same things together, so it didn't matter. _

_But here, everyone was from different districts, from different statuses and different families. She didn't have any way of comparing with any of them. _

_Not that it mattered, She was had always been a loner. It was hard for anyone, not even someone who knew her well, to discern what she was feeling behind those silver eyes. And she was perfectly fine with it, though it was sometimes lonely when everyone left her alone. Suddenly, behind her, she heard a voice._

"_You new?"_

_She turned around to find a silver-haired boy about her age and height. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had a mildly interested look on his face. _

_She nodded.  
"So am I. I can't believe I actually decided to come here. All because that stupid girl had to come and be a shinigami," he said and sighed._

_The girl noticed for the first time that he had large eyes of a startling turquoise. You didn't see turquoise eyes everyday. You didn't see silver-haired boys everyday either. _

_Keeping her gaze steady so as not to give away that she was thrilled to be making an acquaintance with someone for the first time since she arrived, she asked,_

"_Who are you?"_

_He turned his turquoise gaze on her. _

"_You're not from around here, are you?" he said, studying her._

_She blinked, wondering if she should answer. He interlaced his hands behind his head, watching her through one turquoise eye. _

_Seeming to think she was okay, he declared,_

"_It's Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya Toushirou. Yoroshiku."_

(Pretend this is a footnote. I'm just that lazy. Hence the nickname. 'Yoroshiku' would be an informal way of saying 'Nice to meet you.' 'Hajimemashite' would be a better way to greet someone that you've never met before, but I wanted to add this sense of familiarity in. Hitsugaya generally ignores headings and prefers to call everyone by their last name only, no matter their rank. Except perhaps Yamamoto sou-taichou. But I'm not sure. Also, you might ask why I put that in Japanese. There are many different ways of saying "nice to meet you" to someone in Japanese. But there is basically only one way of saying "nice to meet you" in English. Being specific about the way someone says a certain phrase can help you to understand someone better and therefore understand the story better. Okay, analyzing is over. Back to the story.)

* * *

Sitting in silence in the small back room that had come to be the meeting place for the shinigami, the sliding door was slid open. Urahara stepped into the room, glancing briefly around the room before closing the door behind him. 

In the next room, Inoue was busy watching over the injured girl. Ururu and Jinta stood respectfully at the side, waiting to see if they could be of help.

Her dark tresses spread out in a fan on the pillow, the girl lay covered with a blanket. Every once in a while, her eyes twitched beneath her eyelids and her delicate eyebrows flinched as if she were in pain. A bead of sweat ran down from her forehead to her temple only to disappear into the roots of her black hair.

Inoue sighed unhappily. The girl's wounds had been healed two days before and it seemed that she would make a complete recovery. But she hadn't woken from her fitful sleep. From the very first day, the girl had had restless dreams. Inoue had taken to staying at Urahara's, just so she could check on her patient's progress.

Urahara had told her that it was not her fault that the girl was still unconscious.

"_There are some wounds that cannot be healed with bandages and medicine. These require time. It's not her body that is injured, it's her mind."_

Inoue sighed. She hated being unable to do anything. Folding her knees beneath her, she sat down to watch over the girl as she slept.

Urahara finished telling the shinigami of the condition of the girl. Sitting back to lean his head against the wall, he brought one hand up to straighten his hat as it threatened to fall off.

Ichigo sat in silence in a corner of the room, his arm and chest swathed with white bandages. He had refused to get treatment from Inoue, urging her to save all her power to heal the girl instead. Besides, she was in far worse condition than he. He blamed himself for not being able to handle the hollow in the first place and he blamed himself for the girl's injuries, even though he barely knew her.

Rukia was also sitting in silence. She also felt somewhat resigned because it was she who fought to let the girl face the hollow alone. She'd somehow survived the conflict, but almost at the cost of her life.

'_At least she lived,'_ she thought.

Ikkaku and Yumichika, who had been securing the area from hollows, had been filled in on that night's events and were quietly conversing about the threat of the arrancar and the new hollows.

Hitsugaya was deep in thought, trying to remember all he could from the record books about the power to control rain. Matsumoto was quiet for once, knowing that this was a time for thought. After the silence went on, Matsumoto decided to speak up,

"Taichou, do you have an idea who she is?"

Hitsugaya looked up at Matsumoto.

"I think I know, but we can't be sure until she wakes up," he answered. He seemed troubled.

"Are you going to report this to Soul Society?" asked Matsumoto.

Hitsugaya thought a moment before saying,

"Not yet. It's only a hunch. We'll report after we confirm her identity."

Suddenly, the door was pulled open. Startled eyes turned to behold Jinta and a panting Ururu.

"She's awake," he said in between breaths.

* * *

She was sitting up, staring at her white hands on the sheets. There was no doubt that she had finally awoken, but she wasn't responding to anything. 

Inoue had tried unsuccessfully to get her to eat or drink. She had then tried to ask if she was comfortable. No response.

The door slid open silently to admit the shinigami.  
There was no apparent reaction from the girl.

Urahara tried to lighten the atmosphere,

"So, you're up. Your gigai is currently in the process of being fixed. It's an old model and was pretty badly beaten up. But don't worry it'll be good as new!"

When he got no response as well, he shut up.

Matsumoto suggested,

"She's probably still tired and overwhelmed. Maybe we should give her some peace for now. She's been through a lot."

The shinigami agreed. They all filed out.

Inoue stayed. Looking worriedly over at the still form of the girl, she found that she hadn't moved once through all that time.

* * *

The next few days saw the shinigami trying unsuccessfully to get the girl to open up to them so they could ask her the many questions they needed answers to. She never paid any attention to any of them. She'd taken to gazing silently out the window, the white light turning her eyes an even paler silver than it already was. No amount of arguing, pleading or kindness could get her to talk.

By the second week of this, the shinigami had completely given up. Even Inoue had stopped trying.

After another evening of fruitless planning, Hitsugaya got up to go out.

"Where are you going, Taichou?" asked Matsumoto.

Hitsugaya paused.

"Going to get some fresh air," he finally said. The door slid shut behind him.

Walking silently down the hallway, he stopped in front of a door and opened it. He stepped inside and slid the door shut again.

Turning around to face the room's occupier, he saw that she was once again staring blankly out the window. He sat down against the wall, crossed his arms and waited.

Finally, he spoke.

"So, how long do you plan on doing this?"

No reaction. Not even a faint acknowledgment.

His eyes narrowed as he spoke the next two words clearly to make sure she heard.

"Kiyozaki Tsukiyo."

(A/N: ((GASP)) There you have it. My OC's name. "Kiyo" meaning pure, "zaki" meaning edge or island/small peninsula. "Tsuki" meaning moon and "Yo" meaning night. PureEdge MoonNight. Rather strange first name (Tsukiyo), but there is a reason. Guess what? I'm almost done with my picture of her! I redrew it. I drew her in the battle against the hollow. I'll have it up when I post this chapter.)

Her eyes widened. Hitsugaya continued staring unblinkingly at her, waiting for a response.

Finally, she turned her head towards him, turning her face away from the light into the dark. Her gaze dropped down to the floor as her eyes clouded over. Delicate creases appeared where her eyebrows met, indicating tension. This was a not a happy subject he'd touched upon. But he'd gotten her attention.

"That's your name, isn't it?" he asked.

Her hands clenched and unclenched in her lap. Finally she spoke, her voice barely a whisper,

"Are you going to turn me in?"

"Not yet. But we're going to have to report sooner or later," he replied.

Awkward silence.

"Why did you do it?"

She hesitated.

"It wasn't right," she answered.

In a sudden burst, she cried,

"I only wanted to be able to protect my village and the people who trusted in my decision to become a shinigami! I worked for the sake of all those villagers who, rather than shunning me because of my spiritual powers, supported me and encouraged me. I owed them my life. But when I asked if I could be situated into that district, they refused. Because those districts "weren't important." Because they were "too far away to send help to."

Her hand slammed into the floor, where it remained, trembling with anger.

"An freak hollow attack completely destroyed the entire district. Even though I requested a rescuing squad to go and help out while there was still time, they still rejected it. Then, it was too late. Why do they care more about the hollows than lives of those innocent people whom they are supposed to protect? No wonder everyone hates the shinigami. They're conceited, selfish and greedy, conscious only to their own needs and gains. They don't care about anything else unless it is a potential threat to Seireitei!"

Catching her breath, she continued in a calmer voice,

"That's why I--"

She broke off.

"That's why you set fire to the Academy, stole important records of advanced demon spells, took a zanpakutou from the court, and killed an entire squad."

She clenched her jaw, eyes painful from the memory.

"I didn't mean for it to happen. I was just so…angry. I thought that if I caused a big enough distraction and took some records, I could escape to the outskirts of Rukongai and study to become strong. Then I could protect anyone. I thought that if I could become a shinigami by myself, I'd lead my own life and show to everyone that I'm a shinigami, but one who was worthy of being called a shinigami. A shinigami is there to protect the souls of the dead and lead them on to the next life. Leading them to a world of poverty and pain isn't fair for them. They at least deserve the protection from the fortunate ones who have the potential to save others. I wanted to prove that I was different from all the other shinigami."

Her voice turned bitter.  
"But they didn't care, did they? In the end, they wouldn't even let me graduate because I was so bothersome. They thought I would have divided loyalties, resulting in inability to respect the orders of superiors. So I did what I had to in order to achieve my goal."

"So you're not ashamed of your actions?" he asked quietly, not accusingly.

She hesitated in indecision.

"I'm not sure. I didn't know what I did until after I'd did it. But of course," she laughed shortly, "that's not an excuse, is it? They only care about law and about themselves. Nothing is a threat unless it's a direct threat to them. That's why I left. And I'm not sorry that I left. It's better this way. I'm not fit to serve in the Gotei 13."

Hitsugaya continued his calm interrogation.

"May I ask where you hid these records?"

"I burned them," she said, "At this point in time, I am the only one with the complete knowledge that was written in those scrolls."

"That rain ability, did you—,"

"That was an ability I invented based off of the information I learned from the records. The Reishi Sword ability is also a creation of mine."

Hitsugaya was surprised. The ability to control weather was very rare – he himself was one of the few who could do so! Yet this girl had managed to learn it from a couple of scrolls and self-discipline! It wasn't impossible, but it was astounding how much a girl of her age could will herself to go on.

"Records say that you used an ability similar to your rain technique on the shinigami force sent to intervene—"

She interrupted him.  
"What are you trying to get at?! Are you trying to make me feel guilty!? Because I'm not! I'm glad I did the world a favor and got rid of a few, useless death gods!"

Surprised at the sudden change in mood, Hitsugaya said, perhaps a little too forcefully,

"You don't mean that. Seireitei is the only force of justice in Soul Society. What do you expect the souls to do if there weren't any shinigami. Wander around for eternity and become hollows?"

Steel-gray eyes glared determinedly at equally determined turquoise eyes. Their eyes met for one, two seconds. She turned away. She couldn't meet the eyes of a shinigami. She'd murdered his comrades, there was no argument for her.

"You're right, I don't mean it," she whispered.

"There you go. You're really bad at lying," muttered Hitsugaya, letting his authority façade slip for a second.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice cracking.

Hitsugaya watched, alarmed, as he saw her act fall apart completely. She began crying silently, her black hair a curtain separating her from the rest of the world.

"Oi, don't—" said Hitsugaya hesitantly. Damn, he couldn't deal with this! He didn't know how to deal with this! The most he could do when Hinamori started crying was to sit there and wait for her to stop crying. (A/N: Poor him. But I think his inability to deal with crying girls is part of what makes him cute! In a strange sort of way…)

So, he stood there, staring at the huddled form on the floor, trying to decide what to do. Sensing a trace of reitsu from outside the door, Hitsugaya looked up just in time to behold Matsumoto rushing in before he was hustled out. In the blur of movement, he made out Inoue rushing in and kneeling beside the crying girl. The door slid shut behind him.

Matsumoto was saying something.

"Shame on you, Taichou, for making a girl cry! Do you do this to Hinamori-chan all the time?"

At that, Hitsugaya roughly brushed off his loud fukutaichou, arguing that it wasn't his fault and that no, he did not do this to Hinamori all the time.

"So, did you find anything out?" questioned the ever-inquisitive Matsumoto.

"Of course I did," hmphed Hitsugaya. Continuing in a more serious tone, "She's an exile. Her name is Kiyozaki Tsukiyo. I'm not sure if you were in the Gotei 13 when this incident happened. A shinigami student set fire to the Shinigami Academy and stole important records along with a zanpakutou from the court, killing an entire squad in the process."

Silence as Matsumoto contemplated this.

"I might have been one of the newest shinigami then. I do remember a panic concerning stolen records and a fire. She's done a lot in her short lifetime, hasn't she?" said Matsumoto.

Hitsugaya didn't reply immediately.

"Her superiors refused to send recruits to defend her village in district 84. A large hollow attack wiped out her entire village. The Shinigami Academy then refused to accept her into the Gotei 13 because they believed that she didn't have the discipline to obey orders. After stealing the records, she hid out in outer Rukongai for nearly three years, avoiding the authorities. Once Seireitei got onto her whereabouts, it was reported that she "disappeared". My hypothesis is that in that short period of time, she mastered her zanpakutou, memorized and self-taught all that was in the scrolls that she stole, and made a gateway into the human world. From then on, she remained undercover in an untraceable gigai made by former 12th Division Taichou, Urahara Kisuke. For the next few decades, she trained and developed her own techniques and tested them on hollows that appeared in the area. That explains some of the unknown hollow exterminations that some of our officers reported throughout the years."

"How did you know it was her?" questioned Matsumoto.

"We were acquaintances in the Academy. But I graduated early, as you may recall. She was more of a loner – shy but assertive when need be. Never really got on with anyone or made any close friends. Her performance in class was only average, though she was placed in the advanced class."

"Are you going to report this, Taichou?" asked Matsumoto.

"I will have to eventually," answered Hitsugaya, turning his back. "But for now, we'll keep it silent. She doesn't seem like a threat to anyone. Tell the rest of them to keep it silent until I give further notice."

"Yes, Taichou."

Hitsugaya felt Matsumoto's presence draw back and disappear into the other room to deliver his message. Walking back up the hallway, he stopped in front of the sliding door where the exiled Kiyozaki Tsukiyo resided. Through the door, he heard Inoue speaking earnestly to the girl and calming her down.

Finally turning away from the door, he walked down the hallway, pondering their current position and what challenges he faced and mostly, what challenges the arrival of Kiyozaki Tsukiyo brought.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

FINALLY! I finished! I typed up a total of seven pages of random fillers and bad writing. Yay for me. In spite of all that, I would like reviews for my effort. Constructive criticism, even flames are accepted. I like opinions because they help me to improve the bad parts and continue the good parts. So, R&R! Thanks again for all my reviewers! You all are wonderful!

My drawing is UP! Or at least, I think it's up. Go and check my profile for a link to my DeviantArt account and my drawing. Warning: It's not the best drawing in the world and it's not my masterpiece either. I'm still learning. Go stare at it!

See you all in the next chapter! I already wrote the last chapter because I'm strange and I planned the ending before I planned out the beginning and middle. Silly me! Remember, R&R!

Tsuki-chan - -


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